How Long Does It Take To Build A Business?

Building your own business and creating an income that is decent enough to live from is hard and takes a lot of work and most of all it takes persistence and patience.

A business takes 3-5 years to build and the first year is, by far, the hardest. The first year you should not expect any income at all so be prepared to finance your business and living concurrently with other activities. The first year you need to set daily goals and do them even if it seems pointless. Work intensively on communicating your accomplishments in your network. Know that your network is the most important tool you have.

Your daily goals help you to keep motivation and that is very important because you will experience times where you just feel like giving up. But do not give up! Listen to the feedback from your network and be conscious of the messages you send out. Focus on your success because that will create positive feedback. Your close network like family and friends will be concerned about you and you will meet some resistance, but it is just because they worry and you have to be very positive in the stories you communicate.

After the third year you will see that you have reached a break-even and income seems to level your expenses and after five years you have a good business that can make you a living. It takes time to build credibility and trust; your environment needs to see that you can make it for at least one year before it starts recommending you. Your network needs a business partner that it can rely on.