by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor
When Jennifer Love and I started NibMor, we knew that we had a good product. Our organic chocolate tasted delicious, and the people we shared it with confirmed our belief that it would be able to stand up to the stiff competition we would face on the supermarket shelves
So, we went for it.
I was constantly working on our recipe, making changes and tweaking ingredients. But we didn’t let product development interfere with our efforts to market and promote the product we already had. The product that people were already buying. Even though I knew I could make our chocolate better, retailers were willing to take the product we had, so we went to market.
We expanded NibMor as we continued working to perfect the recipe. Retailers kept taking what we had to offer because it kept getting better with every single batch.
I’ve spoken to many inspiring entrepreneurs over the years, all with wonderful, innovative products, but they’re only in 20 (or so) stores. Why are they in only 20 stores? Because they are trying to perfect their product before they grow.
Yes, your product has to be good. It has to meet standards and guidelines required by governing bodies. But, you can’t get so stuck in the details that you’re not going anywhere, and trust me—it’s easy to get stuck there.
If the powers that be are telling you that it’s good enough, then guess what? It’s good enough.
Worry about making it better as you grow.
Learn to know when good enough is good enough because when you get lost in the details, you waste time, money, and momentum. If people are buying what you have already brought to market, then bring it to more stores and continue to perfect your product as you go!
Every day I know our product is the most perfect thing it can be right now. The 4000+ retailers that carry it are quite happy with what we send them. If we had tried to perfect our product before we launched, there would be no NibMor. We never would have gotten off the ground.
Being an entrepreneur is not much different than parenting. You can’t obsess over turning your child into a prodigy. You accept the child you have. You love little Johnny even though he’s no Einstein and you adore little Suzy even though she’s tone deaf.
Some entrepreneurs die in the product development stage because they hold on too tightly to making their product—their baby—perfect.
When trying to get your product, out there, it’s crucial that you realize that the one you have is as perfect as it can possibly be and that’s good enough for you. And you know what? If it’s good enough for you, chances are, it’ll be good enough for others, too.
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Celebrated health coach, cooking instructor, yogi, and writer, Heather K. Terry, is a true health aficionado. She is co-founder and COO of NibMor Chocolate, co-founder of the Gluten Free Sugar Cleanse, and a strong advocate of eating real, simply prepared, organic foods and avoiding genetically modified, highly-processed food-like objects. A graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan, Heather’s passion for food and nutrition are palpable. www.heatherkterry.com
Celebrated health coach, cooking instructor, yogi, and writer, Heather K. Terry, is a true health aficionado. Co-founder and COO of NibMor Chocolate, co-founder of the Gluten Free Sugar Cleanse, and a strong advocate of eating real, simply prepared, organic foods and avoiding genetically modified, highly-processed food-like objects. A graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan, Heather’s passion for food and nutrition are palpable. www.heatherkterry.com
