How To Stay Motivated When Your Business Is In Its Early Growth Phase

by Astrid Ferguson

Let’s begin by celebrating the fact that you took an idea that morphed into a passion project. It’s a milestone worth celebrating before moving on to the next task. So many people don’t get past the idea phase. Many of us have ideas tucked away in notebooks collecting dust above our nightstands. If you’re an over-thinker like me, you know the process of funneling ideas into an actionable plan is an extensive process. First, it’s the influx of ideas, and then BOOM! Overwhelm kicks down the door like our momma catching us cutting school. We find ourselves paralyzed and scared of taking one leap forward.

So naturally, my first tip is don’t fight with your ideas! That’s right! Stop fighting your overthinking phase. Even overthinking has a purpose. Instead, I challenge you to side with your overthinking by doing data dumps to help you stay motivated in the early growth phase of your business.

Write All Your Ideas Down

I have found writing helps me make sense of what I am thinking. Overthinking can be a disease if we allow it, hence why writing down our ideas is the first way of acknowledging them and bringing them to life to diminish the overthinking. We need to dump them all on paper, read them, feel them, stare at them before they can make sense to us. However, I challenge you to write them down on notecards and pin them on boards. This enables you to revise your ideas often, instead of putting them in notebooks that remain closed.

I know you’re thinking, “Astrid, what if I don’t have notecards or have a board?” I suggest cutting the ideas out of your notebook or writing them on post-its and taping them to a wall or mirror. The idea is to see what you have written down and allow your brain to develop the reasons why this is important. This leads to my next tip.

Focus On the “Why” not “How”

By focusing on the “why” of our ideas we invite our creative genius to flow freely. Check your energy levels while flushing out your ideas. Ask yourself, “Why is this important and why do I want to try this out?” See if the “why” motivates you to bring this idea to life. Not all ideas are meant to become passion projects and that’s okay. Sometimes, ideas need to simmer a little longer. They are not ready to be fleshed out. That’s why our businesses have an early growth phase. We are still fleshing out ideas. However, promise me you won’t toss out your precious ideas because they didn’t work for you. They are your ideas and they may come in handy someday. I suggest putting them back in your idea toolbox. A client of mine says he keeps a box full of ideas and pictures and scrambled thoughts. Whenever he runs out of creativity he simply dips into his box and pulls something out.

Focusing on the why instead of the how helps us release resistance. Ever notice how quickly we will kill an idea when we start asking ourselves, “but how am I going to do this?” It’s our natural instinct of inviting imposter syndrome in and kicking our creative geniuses in the sack. Worry about the “how” later. When we become really intuitive we will allow the “how” to come to us as we begin taking action. Trust yourself. Your business and ideas will grow! I promise!

Experiment With New Strategies

Think of your business or passion project as one big experiment. There are no right or wrong answers, just trials. Thinking this way helps us release the guilt of needing to know everything. You can be multi-passionate or run your business as a side hustle. You can also love your full-time job and build this business as something you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be complicated. We are also allowed to pivot and shift niches when we no longer find ourselves motivated in our businesses.

When I first started my business I was writing poetry. I self-published and thought all I needed to do was publish my first book Molt. I later learned that self-publishing is way more than that. I was also working full-time, had a newborn baby, and was the breadwinner of my family. I had a lot of learning to do and I had very little time to do it. I had no idea what blogging entailed. SEO optimization, CRM’s, marketing, social media were all foreign terms to me. I also had to do poetry performances (if you’ve been following my journey you know how much I dealt with stage fright). It was brutal! Now, I have a healthy customer list of over 1K+ subscribers, approx. 300+visitors and even got some clients. Now, these numbers may not be Oprah Winfrey worthy but in comparison to where I started three years ago, it’s a hell of a big accomplishment.

I’ve pivoted from writing poetry to becoming a certified professional coach and an energy leadership index master practitioner who specializes in helping people navigate through unclear transitions. I think I’ve been through so many of them (career changes, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and many more) that to me they are like breathing. Change is inevitable my friend, so we might as well just get the hang of it.

So try new things and don’t be afraid of failing. Try new marketing strategies. Ask your audience what they want to hear. Share your trials and see who resonates with them. That is the beauty of the early growth phases of a business—you get to experiment. Now, humor me, and tell me where are you in your business or career? Why do you feel you’re struggling to stay motivated?