The Importance of Consistency in Growing Your Business
Tom Hunt
Starting a business is one of the toughest things you can do in your life.
Often, you’ll find that the key to starting a business is just getting a little momentum going. But how do you build that momentum?
The key is consistency in business.
You might work hard, but do you stick with it? When I was interviewing James Clear, who built Passive Panda into a massive audience incredibly quickly, for the first issue of HustleLife, he had some great words about consistent work versus hard work:
“There’s a difference between hard work and consistent work. Being consistent may be just as hard. You could send one email a day, and you’d be consistent, but that’s not hard work. Working hard consistently is what gets you there, and the only way to do it is to jump right in and get going. You’ll create your own luck along the way. Lucky breaks come from doing the work.”
Consistency in business is key, and I know because that’s how I built my little empire. More specifically…
I built my SEO copywriting business by sending out emails.
I sent emails out every day for three weeks – it was a very clear, simple system that I knew would work, because I had done it once before, with great results. I hung in there with the system, without making a dime for three weeks, and then in two days, I was able to snag 4 big clients. Those clients are still with me, months later, and paying me handsomely.
When I say the system was simple, I mean it.
I kept a very basic spreadsheet of who I had contacted and when. If I got a response from them that I should follow up on, I put in the date of the follow up in the spreadsheet. So, every day, I’d check the spreadsheet and see who I’ve emailed and who needs an email. It was basically a somewhat primitive method of CRM (customer – or client – relationship management). But it was all I needed, and it worked.
Patience and confidence in your system will result in momentum. My cousin wanted to know how to do what I do, so I explained to her the whole system. Two weeks later, she emailed me, complaining that she had been doing this for two weeks and didn’t have any clients yet. She didn’t know what else to do.
I calmly told her, “Trust it. Give it time, and keep being consistent. You’ll get it.”
A week later, she emailed me to celebrate that she had gotten a handful of clients.
How do you know what is the right thing to work on?
Don’t get me wrong – if you are just throwing darts at the wall, you might be consistently doing the wrong thing. But if you are working on something that you know will work, because the facts show that it will, then be consistent and work hard at it.
How can you tell? Pay close attention to the facts: what are the direct results of your efforts? Has somebody else done what you are doing and had success with it? In my case, I learned the system I used from several people who had done it with great success. Once I got those results, I was able to determine that it was a system that worked. I kept records of how many emails I was sending and how many were turning into leads.
I have a spreadsheet named “The Boss”. It is the main cog of my business – where I keep all my leads and active projects. Because I set up “The Boss”, I always have a quick, easily-reviewable snapshot of where my business is and how it is performing. If it is not performing well, I need to revert back to some of the strategies that brought me success in the first place.
Be patient. Trust the system and let it build some momentum. You might just be shocked at the results.
This is doubly important for you as a startup company, because you start with absolutely zero momentum. But remember that every company that has ever existed started with zero momentum. Success comes from a combination of momentum and hard work – and the momentum comes from consistency. If you combine the hard work with consistent action, you’ll go places.
Just remember to give it time. It will likely take longer than you are comfortable with. But you’ll breathe a lot easier once that work starts paying off – and it will.
about author
Tom Hunt
Tom Hunt is the founder of SaaS Marketer and bCast (B2B podcast hosting for high growth businesses). He lives and works in Hackney, London with his delightful partner Rebecca and little dog called Bear.
Read more posts by Tom Hunt
Robert Pinto-Fernandes
Hey Tom,
Awesome post man! Glad you mentioned momentum in there as well, was going to throw that into the mix! 😉
Seriously though this post is great, it really is all about working hard and consistently. We live in an instant gratification society (as I think I have spoke about with Danny) where people want results overnight – but anyone who has been in business knows that NEVER happens!
Also I like what you said about knowing whether we are using the right strategy by the results that we or other people have got (unless its a scammy internet marketing product!).
Right on man, great post! Going to check your other stuff out real soon. Once again thanks to Danny for the feature!
Danny Iny
Hey Robert, thanks for stopping by!
You’re absolutely right – business, just like anything else that is real, takes time and effort to develop real competency in, and to achieve lasting and sustainable success (not counting the odd time when someone just gets lucky).
And really, you don’t need to worry about copying scammy internet marketing products for the results they’re getting, because those results are never sustainable anyway – if it’s a scam, then sooner or later people catch on, and you don’t want to be in that boat when it starts to sink!
Thank you, as always, for your contribution, my friend!
Ashvini Saxena
Doing things consistently and doing them right is a sure short path to success. Add patience to that and the resulting cocktail is one of the most delicious. Very inspirational.
Thanks .
Ashvini
Danny Iny
It’s the patience part that I find the most challenging… 😉
Hector Avellaneda
Hey Danny! Very well out in this post, man! I was just talking to WIll from @GettingToThaPaper:disqus that over the last couple of weeks I had not been consistent in my writing over at InternetEntrepreneurCOnnection.
Not that I’ve been lazy or sitting in front of the electronic income reducer (T.V). As you ma have already read on my blog, a few weeks back I became and member at member of the Pro Elite Internet Entrepreneur community. With my membership and investment as a Silver member, I obtained some amazing Sales and Service courses developed by the guys at WeSkill, as well as the StartWithWhy course developed by Simon Sinek,himself. I’ve gotten so into the courses and the projets that I have going on that I’ve sort of lost track of the time I was spending on these courses and completely failed to post on InternetEntrepreneurConnection.
I definitely think I need to manage myself better in time. I am usually pretty good at that but with the excitement of the the courses I am taking, I may have slacked a bit.
Anyway, I think one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to do is to remain consistent,even with no visible or tangible results being produced. I know this is something I struggled with for sometime. It’s hard to keep working hard when no one acknowledges your hard work, you’re not making any money and when fear and perhaps even thoughts questioning if what you;re doing will be worth it in the end.
I think that is what separates the successful entrepreneurs from those that just give up. To be consistent and work hard regardless of what you may or may not experience in the early stages of your journey is that you must have a vision. Similar to what we were talking about in your post earlier last week. You must have a vision of what you WILL accomplish, how you WILL produce in the free markets and what your life WILL look like when you get there.
In my opinion, that’s one of the best ways to stay consistent because at the end of the day, when you get home from work or when you’re tired of having done 50 sales calls that day, the only thing that will make you pick up the phone to make another 10 calls before you go to bed or call it a night is your VISION!
Am I making sense here Danny?
Danny Iny
Hey Hector, it’s great to see you here, and thanks for sharing some of the stuff you’re learning from WeSkill. I’m a big fan of Simon Sinek (loved his TED video), and I’d love to see his whole course!
Staying on target is never easy – I certainly struggle with it! But yeah, it’s the persistence, and continuing to come back to it until you get a rhythm that works, that makes those who make it truly successful. So yes – you’re making a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Jana Quinn
Awesome post, Tom! I read somewhere recently that the only things that have ever gotten anyone anywhere are self-discipline, hard work, and luck. And you can’t do anything about luck.
James Clear is right, though, when he talks about how lucky you seem to be when you put in the hard work.
I use Excel religiously. I am a VERY easily distracted person, so keeping attention on something that doesn’t have my enthusiasm level at a 10 is challenging. However, to-do lists and other detailed, structured databases help keep the individual steps to my ultimate goals listed in a very friendly format.
These are excellent tips, Tom, and it’s never too soon for me to get another reminder to stick with it. 🙂
Danny Iny
Hey Jana, thanks for stopping by! I like the way that you put this: you can’t do anything about luck, but you seem to get very lucky when you put in lots of hard work! 🙂
I’m a big fan of Excel, too, but I find that my best to-do lists are on post-it notes. I want to throw away the notes, but don’t do it until the task is completed. It’s my way of harnessing mild OCD tendencies. 😉
Christy Lee
Hi Danny,
Thank you for writing this post. I am doing some research on being consistent and I learned so much from your post. I also love the layout and design of your article. I actually learned so much from reading it. Great job!
Be blessed,
Christy