Page 117 - The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch - PDFDrive.com

4. Benchmark Against the Best

Launching quickly is important early on when the conditions are uncertain. Once
you have a clear path, however, quality is more important. For example, with
WP Curve, the first website took me three hours to put together. When it was
clear the team was going ahead with the business, I put up a new site, and made
sure it was well designed and faster than anyone else in the industry.

Any time you feel yourself wondering if what you are doing is good enough,
compare it to the best:

Don’t ask your friends to pick between three logos. Instead, compare them
all to Apple. If it’s nowhere near as good, try again.
If you write a blog post, compare it to one on KISSmetrics.com55. If it’s not
as good, rewrite it.
If you launch a website, compare it to bench.com56 or simple.com57. If it’s
nowhere near as good, then you can do better.

It’s often asking a lot for a small business to reach the levels of an established
leader. You will be compared to leaders, and if you don’t measure up, then
people will notice.
By comparing yourself to the best, you set higher expectations for yourself, and
you will be better for it.