When greater output equals greater revenue, it’s easy to get caught up in the push to be faster and more efficient. Unfortunately, this often leads to mistakes and poorer quality of products and services. Sometimes it pays to be more deliberate and to do things right the first time around.
Why Doing It Right Matters
Speed—it seems to be the name of the game. If your company can produce 200 widgets per hours, while everyone else is producing 150, conventional business wisdom says you’re going to win.
But is this always true?
What if your 200 widgets are of a lower quality than the 150 that the competition is manufacturing?
Quality is often sacrificed when speed is prioritized. Pure output is only relevant on paper. In the real world, it leads to mistakes, lost profits, damaged customer loyalty, and—ironically—wasted time.
As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said, “If you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
When you do something quickly and with half effort, you typically end up rushing the job and not giving it the proper attention. This leaves you with tasks that are undone, as well as mistakes that have to be readdressed at a later time.
The classic tummy tuck procedure is a great example. Thousands of plastic surgeons around the country perform tummy tuck procedures each year, but only a small fraction of them take the time to do them properly. If more doctors would take the time to do these procedures correctly, they’d see fewer negative outcomes and side effects, like dog ears (which require reversal procedures.)
It’s not all about avoiding negative consequences, however. Discerning customers look for businesses that dedicate the proper time and resources to perfecting their crafts and will reward these companies with loyalty. Thus, an investment in doing it right the first time paves the way for a brighter, more profitable tomorrow.
How to Cultivate a Do-It-Right Culture
Doing it right the first time around requires more energy, effort, discipline, and time. But the long-term rewards make it all worth it. Here are some simple ways you can cultivate a do-it-right culture in your own small business:
1. Finish Tasks to Completion
A job isn’t done until it’s 100 percent complete. Yet, somewhere along the way, we’ve become conditioned to think that we can do 95 percent of a task well and then gloss over the final 5 percent. Unfortunately, this results in a sloppy end product that doesn’t reflect the effort that went into the majority of the task. By finishing jobs to completion—which means doing 100 percent of it (not 95, 97, or 99 percent)—you never compromise the inputs.
2. Clean Up When You’re Done
Consider the difference in making a big dinner and doing the dishes right away, versus making the same dinner and waiting until the morning to clean up. It’s a totally different feeling, right? The same goes in business. Clean up when you’re done with a task and you’ll create less future work for yourself.
3. Prepare for Meetings
Do yourself—and those around you—a favor and prepare for meetings before you show up. Not only does this save time, but it also communicates leadership, proficiency, and attention to detail. By preparing in advance, you prevent the need for most secondary meetings (which are created because the original meeting wasn’t done right in the first place).
4. Under-Promise and Over-Deliver
Far too many business owners over-promise and under-deliver. At best, this makes you look incompetent. At worst, it infuriates your customers and pushes them away. The easiest way to correct this issue is to under-promise and over-deliver.
5. Weed Out Bad Seeds
Don’t let bad attitudes, poor work ethic, and mistake-prone employees undermine the integrity of your business. They reflect poorly on the entire company and will harm your ability to attract and retain customers. Weed these employees out right away by cutting ties as quickly as possible.
Adding It All Up
Whether you run a one-person side hustle out of your garage, or you have a growing small business that’s quickly adding new products and hiring additional employees, doing it right the first time will benefit your business in the long run.
Lean in and look for ways to avoid the speed trap and focus on quality products, quality service, and genuine value for all.
