I was chatting on the phone with my friend Darbie yesterday, while taking my morning walk. We talked about the weather, the election (ugh) and, for some odd reason, the fact that over the weekend, her beautiful living room lamp had stopped working.

She explained to me how she figured out why the light wouldn’t turn on.

Here’s what she tried:

1. A new light bulb
2. A different electrical socket
3. A new cord (her boyfriend is very handy)

Number three did the trick – the lamp needed a new cord.

There were more steps she could have taken, but by running through them in increasing order of difficulty/time, and by tackling them just one at a time, Darbie was able to isolate and solve the problem quickly and efficiently.

We shared a laugh about how our fathers had taught us as little girls to solve problems, “one step at a time.” And of course, as RocketGirl, I began to think how this approach to problem solving applies to small businesses.

When clients first come to me, often they are excited to get everything in their businesses running smoothly. Sometimes they’ve been tolerating many issues for a long time; they want to fix everything all at once.

This is rarely a good idea, so I do my best to slow them down. Like fixing a broken lamp, you’re always better off breaking issues into smaller pieces and moving through them one step at a time.

Here’s why:

1.You get smarter. As you tease out the details of one issue, you learn a lot about how other areas of your business integrate. For example, I worked with Debbie, who wanted her CRM and her time-scheduling software to integrate with her email. So I started with just her CRM (she was the most invested in that system).

Along the way, we took time to understand the nuances, eventually moving her to a different time-scheduling software (Acuity). Only after solving that challenge did we migrate her email platform (GSuite).

2.You save money. I’ve seen lots of clients run full speed ahead into InfusionSoft and HubSpot, spending hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars each month. While these systems are a good fit for some, they are not suited for all.

If you break down your business challenges into smaller pieces, you’re likely to find simpler solutions that do the job just as well, often at a fraction of the cost.

3.It takes less time. This may sound counter-intuitive, but the more time you invest at the beginning to figure things out, the less time you’ll spend overall. I’ve see countless solo professional working as fast as possible, desperately trying to fix a problem without first doing the research and background work necessary to fully understand it. As a result, they suffer through several false starts and detours along the way.

And by the way, when I say “research and background work,” I’m not talking about a full blown study. Simply sketching out the situation and the possible alternatives will help you avoid a lot of rework, frustration and wasted time.

So remember, before you jump in for a quick, all-inclusive fix, take my dad’s advice and try to do things “one step at a time!”