One Thing I Wish I’d Known When I Started My Business

Here’s a bit of advice you can take to the bank.

You don’t always have to do things perfectly to get started.

Yes, it’s smart to plan, and great to make sure you’ve covered off your bases. True, timing matters. But if you wait for things to be perfect to start something, even a business, you may never get started.

When I started, I thought I had to have a whole host of new business scenarios organized so I would be ready to take on new work, etc. I had our team noodling on what to do if this happened, or how to handle something if that happened. I had a little sneaking feeling that we were overthinking things, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time.

Right out of the gate we had the chance to pitch the beauty giant Revlon to run their James Bond/Halle Berry film integration, managing the marketing across all their global offices. I was 100% not set up for that, but I pitched it anyway, and won the business. That was a scary meeting! Me, two associates and 30 of their top executives at a long conference table. 

When we got the business, I had to work backwards to pull it off. We rolled up our sleeves, did our due diligence to understand what the opportunity was and created a plan. The campaign was a success, and we then became their US agency of record. 

Had I been waiting for perfect I would have missed that opportunity!