Good Enough, For Now

Is your product the best that it can be?

My grandfather passed away several years ago. He was a carpenter and always worked on other people’s homes. He fixed them up and installed siding and roofs. I worked with him a lot when I was a kid growing up.

My grandfather was one of those people who had his own home, but would just kind of do things halfway on it to get by. He fixed everyone else’s house, but at his own house, he would only do what he absolutely had to do.

For example, my dad asked him to come over because we needed some steps on the front of our house. He came over and built us some temporary steps. He explained that they were good enough for now. Those steps were installed when I was probably five or six years old, and they were there until the day I left home when I was 18. I guess that was “good enough for now.”

The point I’m trying to make here is that a lot of people are like that with their  own products… ‘that’s good enough for now.’ “Just put it up. I can fix it later,” but later never comes.

Therefore, they’re putting up a half-ass product that really isn’t good. There are three things you should ask yourself about your products.

1. Is your product the best you can possibly create?

Think of the product you have — how can you make it better? Not  for  you, but for the consumer using the product. How can you make that product better?

The ideal customer service situation is you should have no customer service. You know that’s not going to happen, but that’s the idea and the objective. If you have a great product, you will eliminate a lot of your customer service.

2. What makes your product unique?

What is it about your product that’s different than every other product on the market? What makes you different than all of your competitors?

Sometimes, when you really think about it, there’s absolutely no difference whatsoever between your product and your competitor’s, except maybe that you have a different look and feel on your website.

You may say the information a little dif- ferently, but that’s not enough; you have to have something that the other guy doesn’t. You have to give the customer a unique product in order to make it stand out from the rest of the crap people offer in the marketplace.

3. Will your product change with the times?

Will you have to modify the product in the future? Did you create that product just because of a trend that’s happening in the marketplace, or did you create a product that is evergreen, one that never has to change?

That’s the ideal type of product, a product that never has to change.

For example, a weight  loss  product,  for the most part,  doesn’t  really  have to change, unless what you’re teaching people is blatantly wrong or could possibly hurt a person.

If you create evergreen products, you don’t have to keep going back and re- doing your product because of changes that occur in the marketplace. Constantly having to update your products is a pain in the butt.

And never settle for your products being “good enough for now.” Create the best products you can, make them unique  and evergreen. Creating products  that  fit these criteria is the first step to long- term success in your business.