Lagging effect: understand it

ENTREPRENEURS: WHY YOU NEED PATIENCE

The lagging effect suggests the effort you put into your business in the first month will only bear fruit in the third or fourth month.

Last week I spoke of the need for entrepreneurs to take action towards their 2018 plans and not to allow procrastination to drag proceedings. But there are other factors entrepreneurs need to be mindful of if they are to have any chance of success.

What tends to happen after an entrepreneur sets off in pursuit of their goals is a lack of immediate success, which one was expecting or hoping for.

It is a discomforting feeling when you have put so much effort into something, but see no results; usually entrepreneurs view it negatively and quit.

Well, don’t hang up your boots just yet because business works in a peculiar way that you must understand if you’re going to succeed. One such peculiar anomaly is the lagging effect.

The lagging effect suggests that the effort you put into your business in the first month will only produce results or bear fruit in the third or fourth month.

That means there is a lagging behind of results in correlation with your efforts.

And the theory goes on to say that your subsequent efforts in the second and third month will bear fruit in the fifth and sixth months respectively.

If we were to analyse that theory, it tells us that entrepreneurs rarely see results on day one. In fact it suggests that there is a time of pain when one has to give it all, without the prospect of immediate fruits.

And secondly, when your efforts do start paying off in month three, you cannot now rest on your laurels, because the success of month seven depends on your continual efforts, even in your first month of success.

But, why is there a lagging effect? Why can’t clients buy my products today? Well, there are a few reasons, chief among them being that clients take their time to decide and they don’t like being rushed.

They might not have been prepared to buy your products, and therefore need time to understand your offering and maybe even be in the right financial position.

Another reason could be that you improved as time went on.

No one starts off as an expert, therefore it takes time to develop the skills to present, negotiate and sell to customers.

It is possible that the reason you got your first client in month three was because you were sharper and more convincing in your approach.

In any case, whether the lagging effect is true or not, do not be despondent over a lack of success in month one. Keep going because you will get better – and remember success comes to those who don’t give up.