When’s the last time you heard someone say, “Measure twice, cut once”?
Building a birdhouse as a kid in your grandpa’s backyard shed?
From the old school teacher in High School shop class? (is that still a thing?)
Regardless, we’ve all learned at some point about the importance of careful planning and thinking ahead to avoid mistakes that we’ll come to regret.
So maybe the modern equivalent is “Don’t press send!”
If you’re thinking about firing off a hasty email or tweet or DM, don’t.
Slow down, think it through.
It might feel perfect right now, but are you going to regret saying it in an hour?
Your first thought isn’t alway your best.
Wherever you are posting—social media, email, blogs, website—it helps to think twice, post once.
Because once your audience reads it, there’s no taking it back.
We’ve all had that angry email or wild social media post we regret.
But if you didn’t take the time to carefully plan your website, you might be regretting that, too.
Maybe that’s why you’re not getting the new patients you want from it.
Maybe you just built the first thing that looked good or copied what you saw somewhere else.
Maybe you hired some big agency who barely even took the time to get to know you or only had you fill out some generic forms before they started building.
Which is why it doesn’t stand out and doesn’t attract your actual patients.
You should spend at least twice as much time thinking about your market and planning your site as you do building it.
I know it feels good to jump right in and start creating your homepage, especially when you’ve just started your business and can’t wait to get going.
It feels good to post that slightly inappropriate tweet that sounds hilarious lying in your bed at night.
But waking up in the morning to angry responses or burned bridges isn’t so fun.
In business, it can cost you a lot of money.
So listen to your grandpa when he told you to measure twice, press send once.
He was ahead of his time.