Mistake #2: Thinking You Have to Have It Perfect Before Launching

If Mistake #1 is expecting to get everything right on the first try, then Mistake #2 is its close cousin: believing you have to get your product, brand, or idea perfect before you can launch.

I see this over and over — and I’ve been guilty of it myself. You delay the launch because the website isn’t quite polished. You hold back sales because you want to tweak the packaging one more time. You wait to call buyers until the photos are flawless. And before you know it, six months have passed, competitors are already selling, and you’ve lost momentum.

The Illusion of “Perfect”

The truth is, perfect doesn’t exist — especially in business. There will always be something you want to improve: a new fragrance idea, a slightly better supplier, an updated logo. But if you wait until everything feels 100% complete, you’ll never launch.

I learned this lesson during one of my first e-commerce brand launches. We spent weeks tweaking the Shopify site, rewriting descriptions, and going back and forth with the design team about tiny details on the labels. The launch kept getting delayed because we thought “just one more tweak” would finally make it perfect. When we finally went live, we realized most of those details didn’t even matter to customers. What mattered was that the product solved their problem and that they could buy it easily.

Momentum Beats Perfection

What I’ve seen, time and again, is that speed matters more than perfection. Getting your product out into the world creates momentum. It gets you feedback, it generates revenue, and it motivates you and your team to keep going.

On the other hand, chasing perfection before launch leads to paralysis. You’re working in a vacuum, making assumptions about what people want, instead of putting something in their hands and letting the market tell you the truth.

Why Customers Don’t Expect Perfection

Customers don’t need your brand to be flawless on day one. What they want is authenticity, value, and a product that works. Some of my most loyal customers came from early launches where things weren’t polished — the label wasn’t as nice, the unboxing wasn’t refined — but they loved that they were part of the journey. They became invested in the brand as it grew, because they saw the evolution.

What to Do Instead

launch

1. Launch Small — Start with a simple version of your product or a limited run. You can always improve later.

2. Focus on Core Value — Make sure the product solves the problem it’s designed to solve. Don’t obsess about secondary details.

3. Build in Public — Share your process, your updates, and your improvements. Customers appreciate transparency.

4. Iterate After Launch — Use early feedback to guide improvements instead of guessing before launch.

The Takeaway

Perfection is a moving target. If you wait to hit it before launching, you’ll stay stuck. The better approach is to launch when your product is good enough to deliver value — then use real-world feedback to refine it.

Remember: an imperfect product in the market will always beat a “perfect” product stuck in development.

💡 Founder’s Reflection (Mayer):I still remember the relief of finally hitting “publish” on my first Shopify store after months of hesitation. Looking back, the site wasn’t perfect — but it was live, customers bought, and that momentum taught me more in 30 days than endless tweaking ever could.