I remember the first time I heard it, years ago, from a trusted business coach.

It would, she said during her presentation, take three years on average to build a business that would really begin to support itself and support you as the business owner.

I remember frowning.

That was a lot longer than I wanted to wait.

At the time, I was in my corporate marketing job and was finishing up my intensive coach training program. I wanted things to move a whole lot faster. You see, I'd lost my best friend the year before. She was only 55. By mid-morning on a fraught Friday at work, we'd already spoken twice on the phone, texted a few times and IM'd. Our usual.…

And then, that was it.

Later that afternoon her husband took her to the ER complaining of a headache. She'd had an aneurysm and underwent emergency surgery. She never woke up.

All of a sudden, she wasn't there anymore. I felt lost and adrift until I started making some changes in my life and understood my soul's work was elsewhere.

I decidedly did not want to wait three years to get my business off the ground. Life was short. I knew then, after so many years of doing what I was good at but didn't find meaning in, that the time was right to build my business.

But, that long?

It Takes Time

I hear it in the voices of so many clients and potential clients. I can hear the crestfallen way they take in the information I share - that it does usually take anywhere from two to five years to develop your business in such a way that it can start to sustain you. Sometimes less, yes, sometimes more, yes. But that's the right range for most.

That's a lot of days. And a lot of consistency, experimentation, and showing up.

And to do that, in the face of wanting your business to grow and be able to help the people who need you, you need persistence. To do that, in the face of a culture that drives us to expect results fast and against an onslaught of marketing that promises fast results ("six figures in six months!"), asks for perseverance.

Plus an understanding that yes, there are things that you can do to help your business develop. There are concrete steps to take in your marketing, starting with your marketing foundation, and then creating compelling offers, developing strong messaging and a web presence, forming a content strategy and learning how to make a solid marketing campaign.

That all takes time.

Building Trust

And - even more importantly- it takes time to build trust with your audience.

That's not to say you'll never get clients that haven't heard of you before but once they read something of yours, hear you speak, or meet you, they know know they want to work with you. So they sign right up.

That may happen.

And, to be honest, it will likely take a whole lot longer for other folks to make that decision. To hear about you. To feel into your energy. To sense if they like you, what you have to say and how you say it. To slowly step into trusting that you can help them solve their problem. And then, make the decision to say yes.

This transformational stuff is big magic, and, for many people it's hard to understand. It feels like a big leap. So lots of folks hang around, watching and waiting. Until they feel it’s the right time to step in closer to you and your business.

Calling In the Nobility of Patience

So, marketing and growing your business in the face of all this asks for patience.

Not the kind of patience that is a collapse, not a "poor me, I have to sit here and suffer, waiting until the Universe decides to give me what I want" kind of patience. Which really isn't patience at all, it's an undoing.

Rather, the kind of patience that's called for is a patience of joyful anticipation. A patience of sensing a larger tapestry. A patience of love in action, as you take the steps to build the connections and grow your business.

Here's a poem by David Whyte that inspired this post and, that I think, captures a stunning, beautiful aspect of patience.

WINTER APPLE

Let the apple ripen

on the branch

beyond your need

to take it down.

Let the coolness

of autumn

and the breathing,

blowing wind

test its adherence

to endurance,

let the others fall.

Wait longer

than you would,

go against yourself,

find the pale nobility

of quiet that ripening

demands,

watch with patience

as the silhouette emerges

and the leaves fall,

see it become

a solitary roundness

against a greying sky,

let winter come

and the first

frost threaten,

and then wake

one morning

to see the breath

of winter

has haloed

its redness

with light.

- David Whyte, excerpt from

WINTER APPLE, from PILGRIM

So what about you? Are there things you're working on in your business that are asking for your patience? Is there some aspect of your business that you can bring more patience to? If so, I'd love to hear about it if you feel called to share.

Photo by Laura Baker on Unsplash