They say in golf you drive for show and you putt for dough, which is to say that it’s not the big swings that get you the win. They just look good. It’s the small little putts once you’re near the hole that count. Business is much the same. It’s not the big obvious stuff, but the little details. We live or die by the execution. Get the last 10% wrong, and the first 90% becomes a big waste of time.
Take photography. Any decent shooter can roughly find the right spot to shoot from. It’s not that hard. I run photography workshops where I’ll take everyone out to shoot. I am always amazed. You see a dozen or so people hunting around for a shot of essentially similar things, sometimes even the same thing, but there’s always one person who really nails it in a way you’d never expect and don’t see, even as you watch them take the shot. Then, there are a bunch of people who shoot exactly what you expect, and some who just completely miss it. Photography is an activity of inches and split-seconds. Just a hair to the right and a second later can easily be the difference between greatness and mediocrity, but so many people don’t bother to scoot over that extra inch or two and wait the extra second when they shoot.
Or let’s look at sales. A successful photographer once told me you have to ask for referrals. I was shocked, because up to that point I hadn’t been, and things seemed to be fine. I figured if my work was good enough people would pass it around and share it. “That’s what most people think,” she said “but many people don’t think to help unless you ask.” She was right. Asking matters. It creates a sense of commitment in your clients. It encourages them to actively think of you, and it lets them know what you’d them to do. Yet I know so many people who don’t bother to. They’ll post on Facebook, they’ll tweet the link, but they’ll skip something as simple as letting people who are already happy with you know how to help you out.
Day to day, it’s easy to lose sight of the details. You get swept up in the excitement of the big ideas and sucked in by the the task lists and the to-dos. So you start to put off little things or you let things go. Here are some things on my laundry list at the moment:
Add to the office decor
My office is the perfect example of the 90% principle. I styled it the way I wanted, I got nice floors, the right paint, but I think it could still improve by working on the little stuff. I got to a point where it was good enough, and moved on, so now I’m working on finally finishing it up.
Rework our contract
I think a lot of people miss out on the opportunity to use the contract properly. It’s the last document people see, and it’s an ugly, cold thing that neither looks nice nor sets a good tone. Why not make it more human?
Update my website
I’ve always relied on strong meetings and a good in-person presentation, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t attend to the site. There are certainly improvements to be made. In fact, across the industry, this is one of the things I think most people could improve on. So few sites actually stand out. And how many of you would rather someone see your blog than your website? Think about it. That’s not good.
Work on the things I say
There is always a better way to communicate. It’s endless. I used to handle it in a fairly ad hoc fashion. I’d encounter a challenge, and come up with a response, but now I’m starting to write out the things I want to work on. Otherwise, I’d never remember. It’s the little things like how to reply to this challenge or that challenge. How to describe my brand compactly. Steve Jobs (yeah, I’m a fan) said the iPhone buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick it. How memorable is that? What if I could describe every part of what I do with that type of impact?
Across the street from where I used to live, there was deli. When it first opened, it looked great. Everything was clean and new, and you just knew that they cared about the presentation of every part of it. You could feel the pride, and it was packed every day. But as the years went on, things got dirtier, you’d see little stains here and there, and it became inundated with display racks, signage, and little boxes of this item and that item strewn about. The excitement was gone. It was just about making sales. And guess what? Sales dried up, and it closed down. That’s what happens when you let go of the 10%. The 10% is where you go for the gusto. It’s where you make the small decisions that let people know what you’re about. It’s where you turn an great idea into something real. It’s crossing the finishing line and taking home the trophy. Don’t let it slide.
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