It’s launch day! After months of preparing you’re finally open for business. You let everyone know about it and wait for the action to begin.
*Tumbleweed*
Only nothing really happens. It’s quiet, little people pay attention, only a handful of people walk into your store or visit your website. Your first day in operation is officially a fizzer!
This is what happened to Stevino Vinetti of Italian Guild (Episode 3 of the Self Starter Podcast) who started his operation out of a mobile coffee van where he brought in only $60 from his first day of takings.
Right then and there he could have thrown the towel in and went back to the drawing board, however he knew that success would not be an overnight thing. There was a long term plan of where he wanted to go and understood that this was a marathon, not a sprint.
3 years later, Stevino is now running a profitable licensed restaurant thanks to his discipline and having the vision of where he wanted to go.
As our lives continue to get more convenient with the deeper integration of technology in our lives, there will be an increased difficulty to gain people’s attention and retain it. While you might not ‘wow’ everyone and have booming sales/attention on your first day, your longevity and consistency will be a redeeming factor that will push you through the noise. This will establish a reliability that will win over the trust of the public as they continue to see you operating in their line of vision and know you’re not going anywhere.
Your first day sucked? Don’t sweat! Time will reward your efforts of discipline and patience. Keep aligning yourself to your vision, embrace that long term mentality and pay day will come.
Have you got a nightmare opening day story? How did you get through it and how long did it take for things to begin to pick up? Share your stories in the comments below!