How To Get Unstuck And Regain Momentum
Newtons First Law of Motion: An object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion.
Running your own business especially alone youre bound to get stuck and feel like youve reached a plateau or worse still you feel as if you just cant gain forwardmoving motion. The danger is not in getting stuck but in prolonged inactivity inertia. This phenomenon is frequently observed in entrepreneurs starting a new business.
Common causes can be:
isolation lack of support negative environment
overwhelmed with all the work involved in running and marketing a business
no money coming in no clients the loss of a client
unrealistic expectations
out of ideas
its harder than you thought
your services are too general saturation of the industry fierce competition
inexperience
sending out the wrong marketing message attracting the wrong type of client or none at all
lack of clearly defined short and longterm goals with a plan and time line to achieve them
insert your own here
Loss of momentum is one thing at least youve experienced it. But the situation is amplified if youve never experienced any sort of progress or advancement in the first place. You may feel hopeless seeing no light at the end of the tunnel and are ready to throw in the towel on this whole runningabusiness thing.
So how do you break out of a lull?
The first thing to realize is that this is a normal part of the business cycle. Ask any entrepreneur even the successful ones weve all been there and we still experience it from time to time.
Secondly remember that this is temporary but for how long depends much on you. The harsh reality is that as an entrepreneur you are the one solely responsible for getting yourself unstuck.
The secret? Keep on keeping on. If you are still in the marketing research phase this may be an especially difficult time because you may eventually feel like youve tried everything and nothings working. Thats when you must tap into your network. If you dont have a supportive network find one. Living and working in a remote area is no longer an excuse. The internet is full of free online business support and networking groups. If you feel like youve lost your perspective on the big picture and need someone to give you that gentle push in the right direction you may consider hiring a coach.
Another important factor to getting out of your stuckness is to do what one of my colleagues does. At the beginning of each day she asks herself What can I do today to make money? Now this doesnt mean that your daily action list has to contain moneygenerating tasks but your list should keep you focused on doing FIRST the activities that will directly and positively impact the success of your business. Activities may include: invoicing following up with key referral contacts joint venturing networking giving a referral finishing a client project or securing a speaking engagement. Once youve scratched those things off your list then you can do busywork like reading emails searching the internet writing etc.
If you take anything away from this I want you to 1 not give up 2 reach out and 3 work at one thing every day that directly contributes to the success and advancement of your business. Out of ideas? Ask someone to brainstorm with you. The more you get out of your comfort zone chances are the greater your results will be the better youll feel and the sooner youll get out of your slump and regain momentum.
Copyright. Cristina Favreau. All rights reserved.
About the writer: Cristina Favreau helps service professionals simplify their marketing selfpromotion so they gain visibility credibility get more clients. Using the Get Clients NOW!TM program she makes marketing selfpromotion easy to understand to implement starting at your level. Within just 3 hours shell help you identify where youre stuck in the marketing process come up with an action plan of immediate strategies to gain momentum. Visit Cristinas site www.cristinafavreau.com and visit her blog The Savvy Entrepreneur at http://blog.cristinafavreau.com for more marketing tips.
Related posts:
