Feast and Famine: Riding the Waves of Entrepreneurship
The Great Wave of Kanagawa. Print at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
We’ve all been there, haven’t we?! Sooner or later, all small-business owners find themselves riding on the dreaded roller coaster. Periods of “feast,” where all our clients want to hire us in the same month — and other periods of “famine” where the phone stops ringing, and we wonder where everyone is!
When I started my business in 2009, these waves of work would take me by surprise and throw me off equilibrium. In lean periods, I would spend most of my energy anxiously wondering if I’d suddenly become irrelevant! When I was over-booked, I was running on four hours of sleep every night, fueled by carafes of coffee and sugar-laden treats.
After nearly eight years leading Drawbridge Innovations, I’ve finally reached a state of Zen-like equanimity (not really!) and learned to surf this crazy wave.
Here are some best practices that may help you as well.
Famine
Attitude is everything. One of the biggest assets you can leverage in periods of lean business is your attitude. Know without doubt, that this too shall pass. Shift your energy from anxiety to action. This is a game-changer.
Nurture your client relationships. One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is never growing beyond a “one and done” transactional relationship with their clients. When you have time on hand, focus on nurturing your relationships. Invite your clients for coffee and talk with them about their evolving needs and pain points. Explore how you might serve them better.
Work on new business development. Reach out to three new organizations and help them see how you can add value with your work.
Build systems. This is one of the most valuable things you can do. Focus on setting up your in-house systems and processes. Get your accounting systems in order. Optimize your marketing collateral and sales processes. Update your website. Find non-core areas of your work that can be outsourced — and document the related process flows. Automate the business as much as you can.
Focus on your professional development. Listen to podcasts, read books, write.
Work on new products and services. Use this downtime to innovate. Pull your creative ideas off the back burner and make progress on them.
Expand self-care. Use the extra time to accelerate progress on your personal goals. Double up on exercise. Cook more. Spend more time with family. Soak in a tub! Take great care of yourself.
Feast
Take the time to be grateful. Often, when there’s too much to do, you’ll feel yourself getting anxious and frantic. Take a moment to pause and be grateful. Having a pipeline that’s way too full…is a wonderful “problem” to have!
Outsource non-core work. Lean on your network. Remember those systems you built during periods of famine? Now is the time to really leverage them. Outsourcing a portion of your work can be scary at first. It’s uncomfortable to lose a bit of control — and a bit of revenue! Trust me — freeing up your time to do the core work you love is one of the greatest levers you can pull. It expands your feeling of joy and your bottom line.
Be supremely organized. Maximum your time. Checklists, for the win!
Lean out, where you can. Find other areas in your life, where you can lean out and rely on others for support. For example, I love cooking dinner every night. Under times of extreme workload, I’ve learned that letting go of the practice and making a quick trip to the New Seasons deli can be a lifesaver.
Prioritize sleep. Good sleep is the greatest productivity hack! Getting to bed on time is the lead domino that will shape your day and work.
Keep the pipeline full. Don’t neglect business development. Business owners often get buried in their workloads, and when they emerge from this phase, find that their pipeline is empty. Always keep an eye on that trusty sales spreadsheet.
I’d love to hear from you. Can you apply some of these best practices to your life? Do you have insights to add? Let’s find a way to surf this wave – and have fun while we do it!