Impatience

Impatience leads to poor judgment, bad choices, and discouragement when unrealistic expectations are not met.

Impatience is not just a bad marketing influence, it is a bad characteristic for business all the way around. Some marketing takes time. A lot of marketing takes hard work, and diligence in keeping at it until it shows results. Being impatient sets you up for failure, and makes you a sitting duck for scammers promising a quick fix.

Marketing is almost never fast - well, unless you have a fortune to pour into advertising! Lacking that though, the only thing you have to trade for the money, is time. Time to use slower methods, time to work hard at building momentum and building up permanent traffic streams, and time to analyze, track, and spot what really is working and what you should drop and replace with something else.

I hate to think of people being taken in by scams because they are looking for a quick and easy way to market a business. There is none for a shoestring startup. No exceptions. It does grow, but it is very slow. Anyone who tells you otherwise wants your money.

It also makes me sad that there are many business owners who, because they do not understand what is truly realistic, give up when a little more consistent effort would have assured them of success. I spend a lot of time telling people what is normal and what is not. I work hard to help them understand that a business is like a baby - it starts out small, and takes a lot of tending before it ever can do anything for itself other than cry for more attention. Because we are all familiar with the fact that kids take time to grow, and because every doctor's office has a growth chart by which we can reassure ourselves, we let a child grow naturally, and give them the help and tending they need to do it. But nobody has growth charts for businesses, and no doctor is waiting to calm our fears and minimize our unrealistic expectations. Too many people give up without realizing that they were not a failure, it just took more time than they were lead to believe it would!

Cultivate patience, and celebrate your small triumphs - its OK to measure things by the each! Expect to work hard for each small achievement when you are building your business, and you'll be less likely to get scammed or become discouraged.