Escaping the feast and famine cycle is crucial in ensuring your business’s growth. But what is it, and how does it impact your business? If running your business feels like a never-ending rollercoaster ride with exhilarating highs and lows, you’re most likely experiencing the feast and famine cycle. Many entrepreneurs become trapped in a complex pattern of struggle and success, which ultimately wreaks havoc on their businesses.
If you’re one of those entrepreneurs, you must break out of this pattern and end this cycle as soon as possible. However, escaping this vicious cycle is easier said than done. Breaking off from a consistent pattern is always tough, especially when you’re an entrepreneur who wants your business to flourish.
I, Makarand Utpat, have put together this blog for all the entrepreneurs out there that are struggling to escape the feast and famine cycle. Read on to explore more.
What is the Feast and Famine Cycle?
When your sales aren’t going great, you’re compelled to do everything you can to boost the numbers and enjoy profits. You’re likely to succeed if you do it right and adopt the right strategies. Everything will fall into place, and you’ll experience a revenue boost. You’ll have many customers, and feel like things are going great. This is the ‘feast’ part of the ‘feast and famine’ cycle.
You have plenty to eat on your plate, and there’s no end in sight. You have a lot of work already, which is why you stop pushing to get more and further grow and enhance your business. You neglect the areas you once paid a lot of attention to because you’re too occupied looking after your current customers and their needs.
However, there’s a cycle to all things in life, and your business is no different. All the major projects you’re working on right now will end. You might lose some of your customers along the way, maybe because they found a cheaper alternative for their needs or because you weren’t able to accommodate them anymore.
Before you know it, the famine part of the cycle will hit, leaving you right where you started. Not only will you have declining sales and profit, but you’ll also be worrying about pending bills and expenses. Ultimately, you will start focusing your efforts on increasing sales and acquiring new customers again, breathing life into the cycle once again.
You’ll continue to be a part of this cycle until you make an effort to escape and establish your business for good.
How to Escape the Feast and Famine Cycle?
Find Out the Major Signs of Impending Famine
While no entrepreneur is a stranger to the feast and famine cycle, certain telltale signs can help you notify of an impending feast or famine cycle and avoid it before the storm hits.
One of the most common signs of a business famine is a lack of focus on business development. The minute you neglect business development, you give room for the cycle to start all over again. Never stop working on business development efforts, no matter how many new clients you have or how great the business is doing.
Spend Time Working on the Fundamental Areas of Your Business
Most entrepreneurs make the mistake of neglecting some fundamental areas of the business once their sales pick up, which untimely leads to the famine part of the feast and famine cycle. The three most common fundamental areas of your business are:
- Delivering your services
- Growing your business
- Running your business
As an entrepreneur, you need to pay attention to tasks that will allow you to put an end to the feast and famine cycle, and focusing on activities related to the above-mentioned areas is a great way to do so.
Give Equal Time to All Areas of Your Business
As mentioned above, you’re likely experiencing the feast and famine cycle because you’re paying too much attention to one area of your business and neglecting the others. Running a business is a balancing act, and you need to know how to do that as an entrepreneur. For example, you might be spending too much time and effort on the revenue and administration part of your business and completely forgetting to prioritize strategy.
Understandably, you can’t do everything yourself, which is why you can take help from your team by delegating tasks and equally splitting your time between different areas of your business, whether it’s administration, strategy, or sales.
Stay Consistent in Your Efforts for Business Growth and Expansion
Finally, consistency is the key to success when it comes to escaping the feast and famine cycle. You need to keep your efforts consistent, no matter how much time passes or how successful you get. Don’t neglect business development and growth opportunities just because your business is doing great and you don’t need new opportunities. You’ll always need them if you want your business to continue to flourish.
If you wish to delve deeper into the world of business, I, Makarand Utpat, am the expert for this job. I have a great appetite for knowledge and hope to spread my knowledge to help businesses in need. I am a credible business consultant who can help you take your business to the next level.
You can schedule a free 30-minute consultation to learn more.
