I AM REALLY SHOWING OFF my range of sophisticated cultural references here, but one of my favorite books (and related movies) is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (also known as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), which had a great character named Veruca Salt. Veruca was the stereotypical spoiled brat that had no patience and wanted anything and everything at her whim. In the original movie version, she sang a song called, “I Want it Now,” which reflected that not only did she want a bright shiny new thing, but she didn’t want to have to wait around for it.
“I want it now” is not an uncommon philosophy in our society, as we have become a society of immediate gratification. Almost anything in the universe that we desire is just a quick mouse click away. We no longer place a lot of value on that whole “patience is a virtue” saying. In the business arena, the media intensifies this sentiment by talking about overnight sensations, leaving out the part that the overnight sensation actually was working hard for decades before becoming an overnight sensation!
One way that our impatience rears its head is by tricking us into thinking that we have experience. We have already talked about how often we don’t want to take the time to prepare to do something; we just want to start doing it (sometimes known as “Ready. Fire. Aim!”). Another way impatience asserts itself is when we believe that the business will run smoothly and be immediately successful.
If you are like me, you like to complete tasks and check them off the list. Impatience in a business can stem from that desire to see tangible progress. However, that progress is not always up to you and will therefore not be completed in your timeframe. Financial success aside, everything else in a new business is going to take two to three times as long (maybe longer) than you think it should (and than it probably should) take.
Your lawyer will take too long to set up the corporate structure and any other documents you need. Your web developer will take at least double the time quoted to develop your website. Your store will take longer than you had anticipated to build out (setting your opening date back a few months). Your new employees will take twice as long as anticipated to train (and then still won’t fully understand what they are supposed to be doing). Your vendors will send you products after the date they had promised. When your office equipment breaks, it will take longer than necessary to fix (especially if it is something important, like your computer with all of your data).
If you cannot deal with the stress of inefficiency, or you are impatient and likely to blow up at every issue, get your high blood pressure medication ready when you start your new business.
While it isn’t good to be so relaxed that no real progress is ever made, impatience and unrealistic expectations are not qualities that play well in the entrepreneurial arena. While I mentioned that some businesses have a honeymoon period, some don’t, and the ones that do eventually wear off. The bottom line is that you have to be mentally, operationally, and financially prepared for your business to take a while to gain (or regain) momentum.
On the mental front, it can be quite an emotional defeat when your business realities don’t match up to the dream you had in your head. I can’t tell you how many times I have met entrepreneurs that have opened ______ (fill in the blank with your favorite small business model—retail store, online store, services firm, etc.) that fell short of their expectations. Each time, the entrepreneurs had visions that once they did the “up front work”—such as creating or sourcing products, putting together the website, building out the store, setting up the credit card processing and PayPal accounts and putting together some flyers and other marketing materials—they were ready to go, and the money would start pouring in. They had visions of the phone ringing off the hook with orders, boxes stacked high by the door waiting for the post office to pick up and deliver to all of their new customers, and, of course, themselves laughing all the way to the bank. They opened their business and that didn’t happen. In fact, not much of anything happened.
Consumer businesses can take a while to build momentum, and business-to-business products and services often have a long sales cycle. These factors are consistently not processed or severely underestimated by new entrepreneurs. When the business opens and dollars don’t start flowing, discouragement sets in. This doesn’t mean that you should sit around and do nothing (conversely, you have to work extra hard to reach and convert customers), but it doesn’t mean you should give up either.
Sometimes building your business becomes very painful and happens slower than you have ever imagined. Let’s say you have a new rock band and in order for you to get paid, selling CDs, playing concerts, selling merchandise, etc., you need to have fans. So, you figure that the best way to build your fan base would be to take a low-paying gig at a smaller club to get some exposure and credibility. So, you submit your music to the slacker in charge of bookings, and he never calls you back. You follow up several times, and by the twelfth time he is sick of listening to your voicemail messages, so he calls you back. Before he discusses anything else, he wants to know how many fans you can bring to his club for a show.
You are confused. You are a new band, so you don’t have many fans other than your friends and family members who come out to support you. This is why you are agreeing to the gig at the low-end club in the first place! He sees it differently. He explains that he is also trying to run a business and that he needs people in the club to pay a cover charge and/or buy lots of alcoholic beverages. If you don’t have enough fans who you can guarantee will show up at the club, he can’t book you. Or, if he is very generous, he may say that at a minimum he can’t pay you unless you have at least “X” number of fans who show up. Oh, and if you take the unpaid gig, your time slot will be at 5:30 p.m., when there is sure to be nobody at the club. So, you try to build your fan base, but you can’t do that without having some fans (or at least forgoing payment). You realize it is going to be a very slow and painful process for you to build that fan base.
If you have delusions that your business is going to take off on day one and that you are going to soar to success, you are in for a heck of a surprise. If you require immediate gratification or consistent recognition for your achievements, you are going to have a hissy fit when your business doesn’t provide that. It is going to be a long and bumpy road, so don’t delude yourself into thinking anything different.
The other problem with immediate gratification is that you need to move on to get your next gratification fix. For a business to build real value takes a long-term commitment. Not just a commitment to getting things humming but a commitment to keep things going day in and day out, where a lot of the days there may not be that tangible gratification you seek. In fact, you may not realize value for decades. Do you have what it takes to commit not just for now, not just five years from now, but for decades? Imagine yourself ten years in the future. Do you see yourself working in this business? If not, then don’t put yourself on a path to do just that.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Use these answers to evaluate whether you have the patience required to nurture the ups and downs of a business over a long period (especially if that period has lots of downs).