Which of These 5 Phases is Your Business In?

Every business I’ve started or have been involved in, every blog I’ve run, and every affiliate marketing campaign I’ve ever launched has gone through what I call “The 5 Phases”.

Being aware of these phases, allows you to create more realistic expectations for each phase so that you don’t become discouraged or burned out. 

I’ll go through each of the five phases now to explain exactly what I mean.  See if you can relate to these:

Phase 1 – “The Think About it / Talk About It” Phase

The “Think About It / Talk About It” phase is where you do a lot of thinking about doing something, and a lot of talking about doing something, but don’t actually do anything.  In the affiliate marketing world this is where you click around and browse dozens and dozens of offers on different networks and think about launching a campaign, but never actually launch one.

Sometimes we kid ourselves by saying we’re doing “research” but we really aren’t doing “research”, we’re stalling because we’re too chicken shit to commit to actually try out an idea. 

In general business terms this is the phase where people talk about starting a business but they never do.  You may know a friend or relative like that.  They’re always talking about quitting their job and starting a business, or about all these business ideas they have, but they never get anything started.  They’re just thinking and talking.

In blogging terms these are the people who read other people’s blogs and make fun of the spelling mistakes they may find or bitch about the fact that the blog has advertising on it, but they’re too chicken to start their own.

The “Think About It / Talk About It’” phase ends when we actually get off our asses, stop stalling, stop procrastinating and make a commitment to actually do the project.  Once the decision is made, we take the first steps and get started.  In the affiliate marketing world this could involve registering a new domain, creating a new landing page, or launching a new campaign.  In the business world this could mean incorporating a new company, registering a name etc.  In the blogging world this could mean setting up a domain and installing a fresh WordPress install.

Phase 2 – “The Honeymoon” Phase

  Once we actually get off our asses and start something new, we enter into what I like to call the “Honeymoon Stage”.  Everything is exciting, everything is new, and we’re running on adrenalin.  We infatuate over the idea of our new business, blog or affiliate marketing campaign, dreaming of the mountains of wealth we’re going to create with it.

At this stage if we’re still talking to people about our new venture we’re now even more cocky because we’ve actually started something and we think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.  Often we’ll bash ourselves for spending so much time in the “Think About It / Talk About It” phase.  We’re excited, we’re committed, we’re pushing hard and things are going great.

Well, at least for the first while.  It can be a day, a week, or six months, but eventually the “Honeymoon Phase” wears off and the reality of our decision sets in.  We’re putting energy and effort in but things aren’t growing as quickly as we thought they would.  The results we were expecting aren’t as pretty as we thought they would be.

Our dreams are crushed and we now enter the next phase.

Phase 3 – “What the Hell Did I Do?” Phase

In this phase, we realize that things aren’t as rosy as we thought they would be and so we begin to panic.  The affiliate campaign isn’t making nearly as much money as we thought it would.  In fact, it’s either losing money big time or barely breaking even.  The business idea we had is costing us more and more investment capital, but we’re not seeing any real traction.  Sure there is the odd sign of hope here or there, but for the most part things are grim.

Employees that quit their jobs usually really begin to panic in this stage.  They freak out and start contemplating going back to beg for their old job back.  Bloggers are seriously considering abandoning their blogs if they can just get their mom and the three friends who read it to go away so they can save themselves the embarrassment of saying they quit.

This phase is where most people give up and quit.  It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a new business, a new blog, an affiliate marketing campaign, a relationship or a marriage.  This is where the men are separated from the boys, metaphorically speaking.

For those few persistent bastards that refuse to give up, things slowly begin to get better.  Signs of hope begin to emerge and things start to take off just a little bit.  That signifies the birth of the next stage.

Phase 4 – “Is It Worth It?” Phase

The next phase is called the “Is It Worth it?” phase.  I call it that because you’ll often see entrepreneurs ask themselves this question over and over again during this phase.  The business is starting to take off, but unlike they fantasized during the honeymoon phase the business isn’t as easy to run as they thought.  There get supported and challenged, and they start to weight their options.

Employees that quit their jobs to start their own business are now realizing that it’s not as easy being “the boss” as they thought it would be.  Affiliate marketers start looking at their campaign and even though it’s making them money, it’s also stressing them out due to all the tweaks and fixes and changes and constant monitoring of stats and clicks and click-throughs required.

Bloggers are writing their daily blog post wondering if having a job was really that bad.  After all, they’re now working just as many hours as they did at their jobs, and making the same amount of money.

In this phase you don’t usually hear a lot of public belly aching, but in the minds of the entrepreneur the constant chatter is simply “Is It Worth It?”…

…and then the chatter ends.  Acceptance.  The entrepreneur, the blogger, the affiliate marketer enters a new level of awareness.  A new level of maturity emerges.  The acceptance that the fantasy they once envisioned during the honeymoon stage didn’t come to fruition, but after all the hardships and all the hard work the entrepreneur realizes that it has been worth it.  Every moment has been worth it.  And now, they enter the final phase…

Phase 5 – “It Was Worth It!” Phase<
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The entrepreneur now emerges into a whole new playing field.  The business takes off rapidly.  The affiliate marketing campaign starts to make more profit in a week than most people make in a year.  The blog starts to attract a massive audience, virtually on autopilot.  “Success” has arrived.

This is usually where you will find most “guru’s”, preaching from the top trying to invite us all to join them because it is worth it, and they so desperately want you to know that.  So they tell you all about the seven figure income streams they’re creating, and how easy it is for them to make money online.  And so they breed a whole new set of entrepreneurs who use these descriptions of how it’s worth it to form their new fantasies that they will soon be “Thinking About and Talking About” with their friends.

And the cycle continues.

I’ve experienced this cycle many times in my life, and what I try to do now is to accept each of the different phases as part of the larger whole.  I don’t expect to jump from Phase 1 to Phase 5 without going through Phases 2, 3, and 4 first.  I also try not to quit while I’m in Phase 3. 

Which phase are you in?  Are you the employee who’s still in Phase 1, telling everyone what you’re going to do one day?  Or have you now entered the honeymoon phase?  Or are you struggling through the third phase?

Try to accept that all of these phases are going to happen no matter what.  It’s best not to try to avoid them, but rather to accept them and to keep moving so that we can get to Phase 5 and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Persevere my friends.  It is worth it.

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