The Time It Takes (Part 1)
There are three timelines that occur in business, especially service-based ones, that are barely recognized and little discussed.
Yet understanding that these timelines exist and where you are on them can help you make better decisions for your business and impact how you feel about your progress and results.
The Marketing Timeline
The Build Timeline
The Business Focus (or What the Heck Am I Actually Doing?) Timeline
There’s too much to say about these timelines to fit it all into one post so I’m going to focus on #1 here.
But first, a few notes about these timelines:
These timelines are based on my observations and experiences with my own businesses and hundreds of clients after 25 years in marketing and entrepreneurship.
All timelines can be shortened but usually require a serious commitment of your resources to the vision.
That these timelines exist doesn’t mean you can’t be happy, do meaningful work, or make money while you’re on them. Rather, it’s that you’ll enjoy yourself MORE, make better decisions, and get better results when you understand what they are and where you are on them.
The Marketing Timeline
This is the time it takes to get momentum going with your marketing to the point where it’s bringing in high-value clients and projects.
If you’re new in your business or you’ve never really marketed your business because word-of-mouth was sufficient until it wasn’t, you’re basically starting from ground zero.
Ground zero means you have few to no marketing assets like an email list, content, website, etc. as well as very little practice with promoting and pitching.
From ground zero, expect it to take on average about 6 months for marketing to produce meaningful results.
If you’ve done marketing before, but you quit because you got busy, you likely have some assets and you already know what you need to do. In your case expect it take about 3-4 months.
If you don’t know about the Marketing Timeline, what happens is you start doing some marketing (sending emails, networking, posting, etc.) and well, nothing happens.
You could be at this for months, and it seems like nothing is happening.
So logically (it seems) you think: All this work and it’s not working! Marketing sucks.
You quit marketing.
Or you try something else, like instead of sending emails now it’s post everyday on LinkedIn (I call this strategy switching).
The problem is that you had no idea you were in month 3 of your 6-month timeline, and now your quitting or strategy switching just set you back toward the beginning.
You quite literally could have been three feet from gold and if only you’d kept going.
With marketing rarely is it “If do A, I’ll get B.” Unfortunately it’s not that direct because you’re dealing with human psychology and a million touchpoints.
Usually it’s “I do A, D comes from out of the blue, and months later I get B” which is all the more reason to understand the marketing timeline and stick with your efforts.
Lest you feel defeated by the length of the Marketing Timeline, you CAN do things to speed it up such as:
Get clear on who your ideal client is.
Tighten up your messaging.
Have a marketing strategy that matches with your business model and revenue goals.
Focus your efforts on one channel instead of doing random sh#$ across platforms.
Address the mindset stuff like fear of visibility, rejection, etc.
Systematize your efforts so you’re not bleeding momentum.
Please get help with these things because rare is the person who can figure all this out on their own.
Self-directed trainings and DIY-ing everything will only get you so far.
There is a lot of great help out there. Yes, there’s also a lot of unethical b.s. parading around as coaches and consultants with their silver bullets, but you’re smart enough to see past most of it.
The really good news is that once you’ve gotten to the end of your timeline (3-6 months, again on average), as long as you keep consistent with your marketing, you never have to be on the Marketing Timeline again.
But if you do that start-stop thing with your marketing—what I call the hurchy-lurchy—you effectively put yourself back on the timeline.
My goal is to help clients quit the hurchy-lurchy because that’s what causes hurchy-lurchy cash flow.
We put simple, sustainable systems in place to keep you going with your marketing even when you get super busy and marketing feels like the last thing you want to do.
It involves getting your messaging sorted out, creating or refining key assets for lead connection and nurture, and tackling the silent saboteurs—the thoughts in your head that tell you you’re not ready, not good enough, and no one wants what you got.
If you’d like this kind of help for your business, I recommend booking a call so we can discuss what kind of support would suit you best given your goals.
In the meantime, consider if you’re on the Marketing Timeline and and where so you know what to do next.
Ready to read about Timelines 2 and 3?