Good news: the sink is finally fixed thanks to some videos on YouTube and the wonders of Screwfix direct!

In my last email I suggested you should try to “do OK fast”.

In other words to quickly try things out with your marketing to get feedback, rather than trying to polish them to perfection in isolation before releasing them out to the world.

And, of course, it's one of those pieces of advice that sounds great in theory. But isn't always easy to do in practice.

How do you know when something is OK? When it's good enough to release? When you won't embarrass yourself or let your clients down?

My experience is that most of us err far too much on the side of caution. But you can get a better balance by asking yourself these questions:

Firstly, is it good enough to get them the results they're looking for?

If I've got a headache, I don't need the world's most powerful painkiller. I just need something that stops my head hurting.

Secondly, is it better than the alternatives?

Rather like the old joke about not needing to outrun a bear, just needing to outrun the other guy; your product or service doesn't need to be perfect. Just better than the other products and services out there.

And better may mean a better fit for a group of clients with a specific need than better on every dimension.

And thirdly, is it better for your clients to get this solution from you now rather than a “better” solution in a month or 3 months or 6 months time.

I'm sure there were better solutions to fixing my sink than sealing the joints on the new plug with plumber's mait (or plumber's putty as I believe it's known in the US). But it was much better for me to have a working sink now than to have to wait a week or more.

And I think the final point to think about if you're hesitating rather than getting your new stuff out there is to give your clients some credit.

Don't treat them like children. Treat them like intelligent adults. Rather than trying to perfect something before sharing it with them, why not let them decide whether something is good enough for them?

Be open with them. Give them visibility of your progress. You might be surprised at how ready they are to run with something you didn't think was quite ready.

And you might be surprised and how much of a difference it makes to you to get your new products and your new marketing out fast.