Patience Will Kill Your Business

A client of mine was frustrated. She was talking about the pace of growth in her business. She was telling me that things were shifting, that her message was getting clearer. That she was feeling more confident every day. She also shared with me that her business was still not where she wanted it to be. She did not have as many clients as she wanted. She did not have the reach or audience that she needed.

She said to me, "I know it takes time. I know I need to be patient. The problem is that I'm not a patient person."

I agreed with her about one thing only...it does take time. What I didn't agree with was that she needed to be patient. Instead what she needed, now more than ever, was persistence.

Patience is "the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay." I view it as sitting quietly like a good little girl (or boy) waiting for something to happen to you.

Perseverance, on the other hand, is "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement."
Patience and persistence are not the same.

I know that building a business can often be frustrating. You plant seeds and not only do you expect them to grow immediately, you also believe that every seed will grow and yield a full crop. It won't. What every seed will yield is knowledge that will help you in the future. You gain knowledge about which seeds yield the best crop. You'll learn how to tend to the seeds as they grow. You'll find out the best way to sow your seeds and the best way to harvest them.

Building a business takes time and caring. Regardless of what stage you are at in your business you constantly need to be growing. You need to try new things. You need to take consistent persistent action.

If you just toss marketing seeds out there and don't tend to them nothing will grow. If you simply send a single email to a prospect or leave just one message, that prospect is unlikely going to become a client. Patience will kill your marketing and sales efforts. Persistence, on the other hand will yield to a thriving crop.

Take a look at the marketing and sales efforts you've made recently and use these five strategies to bring persistence to your business.

1. Who is one person I can call today to follow up on a message that I've put out there?

2. Are there other avenues of communication available that I have not used?

3. Is there a networking or community group around that I haven't been to lately?

4. Are there people that I haven't followed up with?

And most important, be accountable.

5. Create an on-going plan and share it with someone.

Think about your business. Are you suppressing your restlessness or a steady persistence? What are you going to do to bring persistence to your business?