The Small Business Rollercoaster

Picture this: It's Monday morning and you're riding high. Your calendar's packed solid for the next two months, and you're already mentally spending that project money. Life is good.

Fast forward six weeks. Those projects are wrapping up, your pipeline looks suspiciously empty, and you're back to obsessively checking your email for new enquiries.

Welcome to the feast-or-famine section of the small business rollercoaster – an exhausting loop that keeps most small business owners awake at 2am, wondering where their next client will come from.

The Predictable Unpredictability

Here's the thing about feast-or-famine cycles: they're somehow both predictable and completely catch us off guard at the same time. You know it's coming, but you're never quite ready when it hits.

The pattern you may be familiar with: You get busy, so you stop marketing. You stop marketing, so enquiries dry up. Work dries up, so you panic and start marketing like crazy. You get busy again, so you stop marketing…

The Real Cost of the Loop

Sure, there are the obvious costs – those sleepless nights wondering where your next client will come from. But it's the sneaky hidden costs that really mess with your business and, let’s be honest, your head.

You can't hire help when you have no clue if there'll be consistent work next month. 

You can't invest in better tools or training when future income feels like a big question mark. 

You can't plan for growth when you're stuck in constant survival mode.

Why Quick Fixes Keep You Stuck

The biggest marketing myth? That you can turn it on and off like a tap. "I'll just ramp up Ads when I need clients," you tell yourself. 

Real marketing is based on building trust and relationships. It takes time to build speed – just like a rollercoaster slowly climbing that first big hill.

Today's networking contact might not have a project for six months. This week's blog post could take until next quarter to generate momentum. That referral partner you're nurturing now? They might not send work your way until next year.

Stop marketing during busy periods, and you're not just pausing new client acquisition – you're hitting the brake on relationships you've invested time and resources into building.

There are three parts of your lead conversion journey, and it is important to communicate with your prospects at each stage: 

Phase 1: Locked and loaded (signed contracts, work in progress)

Phase 2: Buckled in and waiting (proposals sent, quotes under consideration)

Phase 3: Standing in line (relationships building, leads you're nurturing)

Once Car 1 empties and heads back to the station, it's too late to start filling Car 3. This is why the stop-start approach keeps you trapped in the cycle. 

Getting Off the Ride

Systems and processes are not sexy, but they can help get you out of the loop.

We are talking small, steady communications:

• One follow-up email per week to a past client

• One piece of valuable content per month as a blog article or social post

• One coffee meeting per week with a potential referral partner

• Two LinkedIn engagements per week with your network

It’s work, and not the fun polished side we see on our socials – but staring at your bank balance at 2am, wondering about rent money is also not fun.

Other Things You Can Do:

Block time for marketing. Schedule this work when you're fresh, not after exhausting client days have drained your energy - especially if you don’t like systems, creating content - pick a time when you won’t find an excuse to do something else. 

Keep your referral engine running. Past clients and professional partners are an amazing resource when you maintain relationships during smooth stretches. 

Create content that runs while you sleep. Blog posts, case studies, and social media content keep working long after you've logged off - focus on content that you can reuse.

Know your timing. How long from first contact to signing a contract? Three months means you need constant lead generation to maintain work three months ahead.

Eventually, even the most thrilling rollercoaster gets old. Most of us would rather have solid ground underfoot and a clear path forward.

This article was originally posted on Brisbane North Chamber of Commerce.