A few months ago at the Maker’s Summit, Stephen Fraser spoke about the success of his company, Spoonflower. His story is so inspirational because he took a unique idea, poured his efforts, time, money, and passion into it, and has grown this idea into a fully developed, widely known company, printing custom-designed fabric for customers all over the world.
Stephen said something in his story that really surprised me. He said early on in the formation of Spoonflower he had to learn that there was such a thing as “good enough.” Wait, what? No. Really? Isn’t the point of having a specialty, custom, hand-crafted small business to make everything perfect? Shouldn’t all products eventually be drenched in gold, and every idea completely planned out to perfection?
It seems so strange to say this, but no! If your concept is good, your ideas are well though out, you’ve done your due-diligence on the topic, and you are inspired and passionate, then DO IT.
I’ve been dragging my feet on a few projects, trying to think of the very best way to go about them. But really, I am just over-thinking designs, re-writing, re-thinking, re-reading, re-designing… My intention is good, I want everything I do to be the very best it can be, but while I sit over here, muddling around “perfecting” things, nothing is actually happening.
It’s so normal to want to nurture a pet project until it’s “perfect”. I get it. I’m the queen of this, actually. And making well informed choices and adding a bit of TLC is crucial (don’t get me wrong!) But at some point you just have to decide that it is (or that you are) ready and just DO IT.
This isn’t always easy, so let’s do this together. There is always strength and support in numbers. Pick one or two things that you really need to do (big or small), but haven’t for whatever reason.
What are you going to do this week? What do you need to finish? Can I help you in any way?
Often just giving yourself a deadline and saying it “out loud” to someone is all you really need.
Comment with a little bit of your story and give yourself a task/due date.
My task: send lookbooks and wholesale packages to 10 boutique buyers that have no clue who I am or what I do (and hopefully, they’ll catch on and fall head-over-heals in love…) I’d love to get these in the mail on Friday!
Have a beautiful, productive week!
beautifulhelloblog.com 
Thanks, Emily! I really needed this today.
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“Often just giving yourself a deadline and saying it “out loud” to someone is all you really need.” This is so true: setting a deadline, saying it out loud so that someone else (someone you trust and are happy to have along, even spiritually, for the ride) expects results and you hear yourself saying it… I am cheering for you to make your deadline…If you are the queen then I am the princess of this too, so I take my tiara off to you for setting the deadline and putting it in writing! OH Spoonflower, I found it one day when looking at my paintings I thought that they would look very nice as scarfs… I still have not done it and my heart races just imagining them… If I think about it, all that holds me back is the uncertainty of investing because I’d like them on silk and not getting what I am hoping for… Of course I’ll never know if I don’t DO IT… Thanks for a very inspiring and thought provoking read Queen Emily,have a very productive week and may all turn out as planned, fingers crossed, Alexandra…oops, Princess Alexandra 🙂
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Thank you for this post. I am a new follower of your blog and these are words I needed to hear. I am about to launch my website and etsy shop and have been struggling with the millions of details trying to make everything perfect. I have always felt it was a matter of integrity to get everything just right but there is also the fact that I am not making any money without something to sell. Though they are not 100% perfect (more like 90%) I am happy now with my products (a line of woodland animal themed nursery decor) and will get the pictures and info uploaded by next week. In the future I would like to try and make the process go a little faster.
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