Startups: Celebrate The Small Wins

It's common for high achievers with big dreams to postpone celebration until they've achieved those goals. They're on a mission. They're focused. At some level, they believe, "I'll be worthy when I do what I set out to do."

A better approach, especially for entrepreneurs working in startups, is not to wait until you've hit the revenue numbers you're striving for, or until that acquisition offer surfaces. A better discipline is to celebrate the small wins as they're happening, while you build your new venture.

The market you're in, the number of different sales and marketing strategies you'll try that will flop, and the always-happening setbacks that occur when building any new product, provide a steady stream of "Ls."

You'll forever be figuring out how to attract new clients. Once you get them, the problem shifts to delivering on the promises you made during those presentations. Then, you have to continually work to keep them happy, loyal, and willing to advocate for your company.

The startup process naturally beats on your personal confidence, and your team's.

You can change this dynamic by celebrating all the little victories as they happen.

Have a great call with a prospect, celebrate it. If someone visits your website and asks for a demo, applaud it. Solve a technical problem that was keeping you up at night, gather your team, and let everyone know.

So much of the process of iterative improvement focuses on the areas of your business that are problematic, not working well, or broken. Problems grab our attention effortlessly.

Less time and energy are spent acknowledging and appreciating what's working well within the business.

By emphasizing and celebrating positive indicators, you not only boost morale but also foster a culture of appreciation and resilience within the team.

Here's a journal entry I made on June 2, 2011, about what was at the time, a major win for me, two-plus years into our bootstrap startup venture:

$793.50.? That's the amount of my first salary check from AmCoBi. Today is a day for celebration! Two years and four months after we started this journey, I'm getting a check that I helped create. Magnificent!

What's even funnier, I just came back from my pre-trial hearing for the lien that my HOA put on my house for not paying. I got a continuance until July. Hopefully, my short sale will close before then.

I have $25,000 in credit card debt and my accounts are almost maxed out. Any salary no matter how small, is wonderful.

I still have a tenuous feeling like "Don't turn around and look real close at where the checks are coming from, cause they might disappear." But what a great hurdle clear.?

It's showtime now. We have to increase revenue. I'm about to hit the ground if we can't up the salaries by year's end or sooner.?

At the same time, how fortunate I am to work with a talented team of people who care about each other and want nothing more than for our venture to succeed.?

It's scary, exhilarating, humbling, demoralizing, and crazy all the time. We are all, however, opportunists.? We are on the hunt for anything we can kill that will feed this tribe.

We will create an abundant business.? And I think AquaHawk Alerting may just be it!

So, amidst the everyday challenges, remember to shine a light on the successes, no matter how small. They're the fuel that propels your startup forward.

Ganbatte kudasai!

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#saasstartups #CelebrateSmallWins #EmbraceTheJourney