How to develop your entrepreneurial bias toward action (from a perfectionist)

One trait most entrepreneurial-minded people share is a bias toward action. Not overthinking your idea but immediately moving into high gear to make it a reality. As a perfectionist, this can be a real challenge. 4 Tips to get you started.

Test before you dive in

Before you spend all your valuable time, money and lost social life on your idea, you need to validate it. Many entrepreneurs (also the non-perfectionist type) spend years working on an innovation for which there is no market demand. Use your perfectionism to your advantage and validate your idea first.

Make you MVP minimal but perfect

You know that you should build a minimum viable product (“MVP”) first. 9 Out of 10 MVPs we have seen are not really minimal and become a full blown product. Be crystal clear on what you want to validate and what minimal ‘product’ is necessary to test that. Now, slim it down. And again, make it more minimal a third time.

Right, now we have a real MVP (not sure? Contact us). Relax, you can now become your perfectionist self again! For a test to be successful you need a really good MVP. It should not look and feel scrappy or minimal. The buying experience should be smooth and using it should be a delight. Make it the best it can be (dare I say perfect?)!

Don’t do it all yourself

Perfectionists find it difficult to let go and have others perform part of the work. Let’s come clean and admit that others can do things better than we can. Hire that specialist, designer or engineer. Oh, and they do it even faster than we can.

The answer is in the market

Want to know if your idea is any good? There is one group of people that can answer that question for you. Not a consultant, trend watcher, startup specialist or entrepreneurial coach. Only your potential customers can answer that question. The earlier you expose your idea to the market, the faster you can iterate and the higher your chances of success are.