May 8, 2006.
Patience - a must when starting and running your own business.
This is my first in a 27 part series on Patience. What? You don't think I have patience? Wait a minute......my husband just fell over from laughter, I have to help him up so he does not swallow his tongue.
Okay, I will admit I am not the most patient person..........um, if we are being honest, I am not patient at all. This is one of the hardest parts of starting a business for me. I have to wait for so many different aspects of the business:
- I wait for a possible prospect to answer a New Product Submission
- I wait for a store to put in an existing order
- I wait for the existing channel to send their checks
- I wait for people to review a new version of our website
- I wait for a new channel to run numbers on sell through to see if we will continue to work with them
- I wait for a possible product placement in a major magazine
- I wait for materials to ship
- I wait for EVERYTHING
Being a type 'A' personality (I know you are surprised....stop I am blushing) I have mostly no patience for anything. I realize that it takes months, sometimes years to establish ones company as a brand, a leader or a sought after partner. Believe me, in my head I know - but my heart is not so patient.
This has been a difficult thing for me. When I feel that I do not have the patience for something, I often need to focus on something else that is tangible. I may need to go into the shipping department and do shipping that gives me a feeling of accomplishment by the end of the day. Or, I pick up the phone and start cold-calling channels, or follow up on dry sales channels.
Don't get me wrong, none of these things fill the void of 'WHAT' I am waiting for. However, it does let me do something that has been on my arm-length to do list that would have otherwise NOT gotten done.
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