When you start and grow a business, it is critical that you’re patient throughout the process. I started a company called CRAVEBOX in 2014 and growing the company from an idea to what it is now, required a great deal of patience and persistence.

It’s important to realize that actual, tangible results take very long to materialize. Usually, you will need to work hard for several years before the results become obvious. If you don’t have patience and give up too soon, you will never reach those desired results.

There are several reasons why patience is so important when growing your business.

Starting a Business is Slow

When you start a new business from scratch, it’s not going to grow overnight. You will be entering an industry that has many long-time incumbent businesses. These are bigger business with greater funding and resources than your new startup.

These existing companies exist and have grown because they do a great job serving their customers. It’s going to require a lot of work and time for you to move your new business into a position where you start winning a sliver of market share from these larger businesses.

When I started CRAVEBOX, I tried partnering with colleges to market and sell my snack boxes/care packages to their students. I found that pretty much every college already had an exclusive contract with an existing, large company to market snack boxes/care packages. So I needed to submit proposals to colleges when their contract was up for renewal and I had a very difficult time winning since the incumbent companies were already doing a great job.

So again, you will need patience and persistence to break through this startup barrier. With enough time and effort, you will make it.

Results take Time to be Realized

The average small business does not become profitable until the business is 2-3 years old. This means you will need to work hard, every day, consistently for several years and you might not see any significant results. This is true for starting the business, becoming profitable, or growing sales and profit after the business is more established.

There is a pattern where results will lag the work and effort you put in. This means that you’ll usually have to work for months or years in a particular direction before you reap the benefits of that work.

It can be frustrating and discouraging but if you understand this concept, you will have more patience and keep going despite the lack of concrete results. If you keep going, the results will come, so hang in there. When I started CRAVEBOX, it was not profitable until the 4th year. There were many moments of doubt but I had a feeling inside that if I kept working hard on things that I thought were important, eventually the results would come. And they did.

Quitting too Soon is a Common Mistake

As mentioned before, starting business takes time, seeing results takes time, and if you quit too soon, you will never realize the success that’s around the corner. However, I’m not saying that you should aimlessly work in the same, wrong direction.

It’s important that you constantly think about the best way to succeed, the best direction to go in, the best way to market your products and beat your competition, etc. So while you should adapt, pivot, and make changes, you should not give-up entirely.

There are many common reasons why entrepreneurs give up too soon, and before you start a business, you should have a strong conviction that you will stick with it for the long-term and do what it takes to make it succeed. When I started CRAVEBOX, I wanted to build the business so badly, that my mindset was that I would try forever.

In the beginning I taught guitar lessons part-time to pay for rent and food and I figured I’d just work on CRAVEBOX for the rest of my life trying to make it successful. It’s this long-term attitude many entrepreneurs are missing but it’s absolutely necessary to success because if you’re not prepared for the long-haul, you will quit too soon.

Growing a successful business is a trying, doubtful process so you need a lot of mental strength and patience throughout.