The Impact of the Feast or Famine Cycle

What do you do when the work dries up? Especially if you go through a long spell of having no way to pay your bills?

The turmoil and upheaval takes a toll on even those with a high-tolerance for high-pressure situations.

Feast or Famine is not a pleasant experience and causes many entrepreneurs and small businesses to close shop.

This cycle brings a whole host of ills such as:

Stress. When you're under pressure to find new work and you have to put yourself out there with a high probability of rejection time and time again, stress can eat at you. With each failure comes a heightened feeling of needing to do better with your next effort, so you put more pressure on yourself, causing a downard spiral.

As the lack of work drags on, panic may set in. You can start worrying about how you're going to pay your bills and provide for yourself and your loved ones.

Panic may give away to fear. Fear that things will never turn around - that you'll have to stop what you are doing and find another opportunity. Fear that you'll experience loss of material possessions. And fear that you'll lose the respect of those around you.

Stress, fear, and panic may bring on a period of serious self-doubt. You may begin to question your abilities - and your worth. You may feel that you're not good enough, sabotaging all your efforts and impacting your relationships.

The mounting pressure might cause you to start accepting work and clients that aren't a good fit. You may find yourself saddled with problems that you have a hard time solving and you might end up with clients who demand everything from you and are never pleased. You could even end up being stiffed when you have finished - leaving you without the money you were counting on and with missed opportunities.

Sooner or later, you'll run out of money, increasing the desperate feelings that swamp so many. Bills come due and creditors demand payment. Now you may begin to experience even worse symptoms.

Rather than living like this, if you are like many, you may find it necessary to go find another job - any job - at this point just to dig yourself out of the whole that you've sunk into.

In my next post, we'll take a look at the benefits of creating a pipeline that is always full of well-qualified prospects.