At a recent wedding the Great Aunt of the bride made a statement which was most prophetic … many people now days confuse their wedding with their marriage.

This lady believed that many couples focus too much attention on planning the one day event - the wedding - and not enough attention on planning the marriage itself; something which will (hopefully) last a lifetime.

This comment also serves to remind me that there are lots of similarities between launching a business, and launching a marriage.

Most of all, first timers have a tendency to give too much attention to the "big event" - the business, product or idea launch - and not enough to life on the other side.

With that in mind, here's the business outcome I suggest you investigate …

• Get the new product, change process, newsletter or new anything off the ground as quickly as possible, and resist the urge to delay the launch, "until X, Y or Z is ready."

• Don't worry about perfection getting it 100% correct before you launch it to the world. 80% is great the last 20% may take 12 months to get perfected and by then it may be too late.

Here's why:

You can't see the finish from the starting line when you run a marathon or any other distance race.

As many times as I've planned and assisted with the launching of a new product or business I can tell you that no matter how hard you try you won’t uncover every cross selling opportunity, every clever connection, every use of, every cost saving or revenue generating idea at the beginning. It's simply not possible to know how all the pieces will best fit together until you build the machine and watch it run for a little while.

What I’m really saying is that the cost/benefit of fine tuning (the final 20%) is practically zero. It's usually not until the fourth or fifth month after launch that people start to really understand the power of this concept, and that unlike a building extension, the cost of changing the specifics for many projects really is small.

No single issue - not even the first - is that important. If you step back and think about why this is a "farming" approach to growing a business, or creating some form of change in you business, and farming takes time and consistency (but make no mistake; once you get the hang of things, farming beats the hell out of hunting for a living).

Bottom Line: Get your changes happening and roll them out the door!

Like a wedding, the thrill of the initial event is fleeting, and after all the guests go home and the honeymoon is over, that's when the real work (and fun) begins.