I recently helped a client solve a bit of a head-scratcher. It wasn’t overly complicated, but it was urgent, and needed some thought to find the right combination of tools from what we already had, what was available to purchase, and what was open-source.
What I suggested was a mix of all 3 – a seriously imperfect combo needing various integrations that will need to be maintained regularly, and means one of their team will basically be babysitting it almost full time. Not ideal, but they needed something to present to their board, and this was the quickest workable solution we could think of in the time we had.
To me, it was a mish-mash of stuff with lots of overhead. I expected it to just be one of several disposable options – but their exact response (by email) was “actually, this is perfect”.
They had their reasons, one was that it helped them justify seeking additional funding to build their own solution down the track. Plus, they had the budget and team to run with the mish-mash until then.
My lesson from this: Perfection wasn’t needed here and we didn’t seek it, but it kinda happened anyway. Don’t get hung up on shooting for perfection, it’s so rarely needed.
For self-employed creatives, normal business traps are easy to fall into and overcomplicate things - but they’re totally avoidable when flying solo.
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