Are you a control freak? I confess that I have control freak tendencies and it’s something that I have learned to keep a lid on.

In marketing, being a control freak is good in some ways (you want to get the details right), but very destructive in others, as it can stop you from promoting yourself effectively – or even at all.

How do you know if you’re a control freak about your marketing? If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of the following:

• You become paralyzed by fear of not getting those important details right, so you don’t send that email out.
• You get stuck in a never-ending spiral of improvements so that your promotion never sees the light of day.
• You agonize over which offer to run until the deadline for submission has passed.
• You can’t make up your mind about which product/service to promote, so you end up throwing something together at the very last minute which is not up to scratch.
• Only YOU can deal with emails/calls/meetings/customer service.
• Your website has been ‘under construction’ for 6 months or more.

If you are an entrepreneur, the chances are that you’ve fallen victim to at least one of these. Don’t despair, however as help is at hand. There are several ways to trick yourself out of your control freak perfectionism, and I’ll give you 5 ways to do so.

Perfectionism and being a control freak holds you back. You simply won’t get the stuff done that you need to market your business effectively.

Here’s 5 things that you can do to get around this problem:

1. Set deadlines. Break each marketing task down into it’s individual parts, and use your calendar to remind you that your task is due. e.g. “Website homepage copy to developers today”. If you can break everything down into small bits, it’s easier to just get it done.

2. Make your deadlines external. This means telling someone else what your deadline is, and having them chase you for it if necessary. e.g. Tell your developer when they will have your website homepage copy – you’ll be more likely to get a move on if someone else is waiting for your action.

3. Use a timer. If procrastination paralysis has hit you hard, take an oven timer (or use an online timer) and set it for just 10 minutes. Focus on that task for those 10 minutes and when the timer goes off, you are allowed to stop. This is a great technique if you have several things to work on at once.

4. Start using the phrase “good enough”. Nothing will ever be perfect, so tell yourself that your marketing only has to be “good enough”. Statistics show that it is consistency, rather than quality, of marketing that really drives sales. In an ideal world, your marketing will be consistent AND high quality, but that’s something you can work up to.

5. Check up on yourself. Set a calendar reminder, use post-it notes, or get a colleague to ask you this question at least once a day: “Am I being a control freak”. This will help you to catch yourself before you slip too far back into your control freakish ways.