3 Signs You're In The Boom-Bust Business Cycle and How To Get Out Of It
Let’s talk about the dreaded boom-bust business cycle!
You know – the roller coaster ride of highs and lows in business where one month business is booming and you’re absolutely thriving with clients rolling in and lots of cash in the bank…
And the next month is a total bust – the income and clients have dried up and you’re struggling to cover expenses, let alone pay yourself.
Literally boom! Then bust!
Not fun. And not sustainable.
This kind of inconsistent revenue month-to-month makes it super difficult for you to plan for the future and to grow your business in any kind of meaningful way.
You’re always hustling for the next sale and stuck in reactive mode – reacting to whatever’s happening in your business – rather than being proactive.
Your business is driving you, rather than YOU driving the business.
And it’s holding you back and keeping you stuck at the same level.
You want to get you in the driver’s seat and take control of your business.
Afterall, you are the CEO here. You are the boss.
You want to be thriving all the time, not just surviving.
So in today’s episode of the Feminine Fire Podcast I’m sharing three signs that you’re in the boom-bust business cycle and, most importantly, how to get the heck out of it.
Of course, the most obvious sign is that your income is up and down each month – but these 3 signs that I’m sharing today are things you might not even realise are symptoms of the boom-bust cycle (but 100% are).
So let’s get into it and talk about how you can start to turn this around.
Sign #1: Constantly needing new clients ALL the time
You’re constantly hustling for new clients. Never sure where your next client or sale is going to come from and busting your arse to make it happen.
If you find yourself doing this – constantly chasing new clients to sustain your business, you are likely caught in the boom-bust cycle.
This dependency on always having to bring in new clients is exhausting for you and unsustainable for your business.
So how do you turn this around?
What you want to do here is focus on improving your client retention rates and your client lifetime value (the total amount that a client is expected to spend with you over the lifetime of their relationship with your business).
To do this, you need to:
Create clear pathways in your business for clients to continue working with you
Build it into your strategy so you’re making it easy for them to continue on and giving them a juicy incentive so that it’s a total no brainer for them to do so
Deliver such an exceptional service that not only do they want to continue on with you but they also become your biggest fans willing to rave from the rooftops about how amazing you are
Client retention is one of the simplest areas you can focus on to reduce your dependence on constantly needing new clients AND it will support you to create more consistency in your income and business each month.
It’s a win-win on all fronts for both you and your clients.
Outside of that – focus on building genuine relationships with your community.
This is what builds trust and ultimately makes it easier to call in clients on repeat.
When you have solid relationships with your ideal clients – you’re going to have a much better understanding of what they need, what they desire, what their biggest frustrations are right now, what changes they’d like to make in their lives.
And this means you’ll be in a better position to create offers that they actually want and need, and talk about them in a way that is desirable.
Your offers, your content, your messaging – all of this is easier when you have solid genuine relationships with your people.
And makes it infinitely easier to sell to them – because you’re delivering what they want and they trust you.
To do this, you need to get clear on:
Where are your people hanging out?
How can you connect with them?
How can you ensure your offers are giving them what they need?
How can you share content that supports them?
How can you get into conversation with them so you’re getting to know them better, understand them better and ultimately serve them better?
Sustainable business is built on solid genuine relationships and serving your people really really well.
If you want to get out of the cycle of having to continually find and attract NEW clients – focus on building solid genuine relationships, serving your people really really well and improving your client retention.
Sign #2: Needing to always create something new to sell to your audience
You find yourself under constant pressure to create something new to create urgency & excitement, make sales and keep cash rolling in each and every month.
Again, this is a symptom of the boom-bust cycle.
Sustainable business is built on solid, repeatable strategies and profitable, impactful offers.
If you’re creating something new all the time, you’re not getting the opportunity to refine, improve and build upon what you’ve got – you’re constantly reinventing the wheel.
It’s time-consuming, inefficient and to be honest, just downright exhausting. Not my idea of a good time, and probably not yours either.
So what can you do instead?
Rather than creating something new all the time – you want to have a solid offer suite with a clear customer journey.
A clear pathway of ascension for your clients where each of your offers has an intentional purpose – it’s clear WHO each of your offers are for and WHY they’d invest in the offer at different points of their journey.
Again this is great for client retention, but it also makes it super clear and easy for you to refine your messaging and market your offers, and for your clients to know which of your offers to jump into and why.
This builds a solid foundation for you to break out of that boom-bust cycle and create more consistent cash in your business with rinse and repeat strategies, streamlined systems and processes, and offers that you continue to grow, improve and refine over time.
Of course, this is not about never creating something new, but instead creating intentional, strategic offers that serve and support your clients really well, and make sense for you and your business.
It’s not helpful for your clients if you’re boom-busting all the time. The more solid you can be in your business, the more solid you can be for your clients and customers.
Sign #3: Not thinking ahead or planning for the long term
Or simply just not knowing what your bigger vision is for your business.
When you’re on that income roller coaster, you likely have very little time and space to actually think ahead and plan for the long term because you’re always in crisis mode.
You’re always reacting to what’s right in front of you because that’s always the priority – you just don’t have the time to shift into being proactive.
And the cycle goes on and on, and you get stuck in this loop that’s hard to get out of.
How can you plan for the future if you’ve always got an immediate problem you need to solve in the short term?
Look, it’s not easy – I won’t sugarcoat it for you.
But sometimes you’ve gotta take your foot off the pedal in order to look at the road map, decide where you’re going and the best route to take.
Otherwise you‘ll just keep going round in circles.
Let’s get off the roundabout of boom-busting and onto a road that’s taking you towards a more sustainable, profitable, consistent business.
So if you find yourself always being reactive and never proactive without any time to think ahead or plan for the future – it’s time to do something about it.
If you want to turn this around, you need to prioritise time for visioning, thinking ahead and planning.
Only YOU can make that decision and prioritise your time.
And yes – that time might come at the expense of other tasks in your business in the short term.
There are often trade-offs like this in business – this is YOU making a decision as the CEO of your business with your long term vision in mind.
It’s YOUR job as the business owner to make decisions strategically. And just so we’re clear, a strategic decision is one that aligns with your long term business vision.
So your first step is to prioritise the time to get clear on your business vision.
I shared a podcast episode earlier this year designed to help you connect with your 2023 business vision – it includes a guided meditation and some questions to clarify your vision and bring your goals to life.
Then once you’re clear on your vision – you need a plan and some clear next steps that will take you out of the boom-bust cycle and into creating consistent cash each month.
You need to know:
What short term goals do you need to focus on in order to create consistent cash in the long term?
What are the actionable steps you need to take to achieve your short term goals?
What is the timeline for each of these steps?
Are there any challenges you’ll need to overcome? How are you going to overcome them?
What resources or support do you need?
What mindset or energetic shifts do you need to make?
How will you know you’ve achieved your goals?
If you can answer these questions, you’ll be well on your way to having a solid plan to create consistent cash in your business.
The key is in the implementation and staying focused. Eye on the prize!
Breaking out of the boom-bust cycle requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to long-term thinking.
The strategies I’ve shared with you today all support you to get off the income roller coaster and start creating consistent cash in your business.
Doing this is key to building a resilient and sustainable business that will have a lasting impact for your clients and create the kind of income you truly desire.
Because that’s what you want, right? You want to create consistent cash in your business and get to a place where cashflow is not causing you a headache each and every month.
This is why I created my new program Confident Consistent Cash
I want you to get to that place in your business where you’re making consistent cash and then you’re stacking on top of that so you’re then looking at strategic and sustainable ways to grow.
You’re not able to do that if you’re not making consistent cash in the first place – so Confident Consistent Cash is about helping you get to that place, equipping you with the strategy and the support you need to create consistent cash in your business each and every month.
So if you’re someone who’s on that income roller coaster right now, I’d really love to support you!
Let’s get you to a place where you’re creating consistent cash with confidence.
We kick off on Monday 19th June.