One of the most satisfying activities as a dog mom is to take my car to Pink Elephant and get all(ish) the yellow lab hair vacuumed out and have a clean car to drive (for 10 minutes until I pick up Hank from daycare). I love Pink Elephant- and the less frequently I go, the harder it is to get the dead bugs off the rear view mirrors, or to suck that dog hair out of the carpet in the back.

So, it was fun to show up to Pink Elephant today and see a woman with a laundry list of issues she was having with her clean car not being clean enough. Here’s the deal woman: stop bitching. Bring your car in more often, stop being disgusting in your car, and it’ll be fine. And, sometimes, your car has to go through the car wash twice to get all the crap off.

Why am I bragging about getting my car washed when it’s been on your to do list for months? And how does this relate to sales and marketing and being a small business owner?

Done is better than perfect. You can always go back and change the content on that web page. Just get the website up and running. Send out the damn newsletter, everyone has the occasional typo, and you can add that content you think would be PERFECT to the next newsletter (or a blog post). Go to that networking event, don’t worry if you don’t have business cards yet or your elevator pitch isn’t exactly what you want yet. If you want to sell a product or service but don’t have it finalized yet, that’s fine, sell the product/service and when people start asking for it, you’ll figure it out.

Just Do It. Stop Worrying. Done is Better than Perfect.

On July 1st I was doing what I always do on the first of the month, invoices and expense reports. It’s not the most glamorous part of being an entrepreneur but it’s the one that keeps the doors open, and kibble in the bowl. After 2 hours of math and spreadsheets and getting all my clients squared away, I emailed my good friend Debbie Whitlock and said “that’s it, I need a virtual assistant to handle my monthly invoices.” And because she’s Debbie, she responded in 5 minutes with an intro to her fabulous virtual assistant to get us all setup.

Starting in August, I get 2-3 hours of my life back, and pay someone else to take the crap off my plate that drives me to day drink. I’m a huge fan of outsourcing, and I’m also a bit of a control freak (and yeah, I hear my husband laughing) so the idea of outsourcing my invoicing seemed like too much to give up. BUT, in the amount of time that someone else can do this for me, and I can do a quick review and call it good? I’m all for that. So, we’ll see how it goes on August 1st with my clients. I’m guessing it’ll be just as smooth as always and I’ll be kicking myself I didn’t do it years ago.

What needs to come off your plate that someone else can do in half the time and give you a half days worth of energy back?