Recognizing Small Victories

For the entrepreneur, there will be a lot of ups and downs, cycles, and waves to ride. Here is a very important lesson to learn as a startup founder, small business owner, or creator. I wanted to share something God has shown me in life and in business the past few decades. There is power in recognizing small victories.

Recognizing small victories helps you stay motivated, and it builds momentum towards the big victories. Back in college at a regional angel fund where I worked as an intern creating due diligence reports, I remember the owner (a very smart guy) telling me “As a founder, your plan and forecast will always take twice as long, and cost twice as much as expected.” I’ve found this to generally be true from past experiences.

When you are planning a startup, small business campaign, product launch, or creator project – set expectations that are realistically probable. Focus on building momentum towards each milestone from idea to MVP, zero to one, one to scale, and scale plus.

As a creator, I remember having unrealistic expectations for my comic book series. I was going to create one issue per month and sell 20,000 copies each month through distribution. All within a few months. Highly unlikely, but possible.

I created an indie science fiction series called “Edge of Extinction” in 2012. I created 4 issues, a trade paperback, 2 successful Kickstarter’s, 2 Comic Cons, and 4 comic book shop signing events. I sold to a few comic bookstores directly and on ComiXology.com over 2-3 years. Overall, I did not make a profit. This was a side hustle, but I almost broke-even selling about 5,000 copies total.

From this experience, I realized as a creator, that it takes about 10 years to create a highly successful brand from idea to peak performance (As a creator/producer/publisher, not individual comic book). In the comic book industry, sales are still rising overall, but being a comic book creator/publisher is a long game. Comic Cons have taken a bit of a hit but are recovering from the pandemics destruction.

In 2014, ComiXology was bought by Amazon, and they later killed their “Submit Program”, which many indie creators used to launch their digital comic book series directly online (ComiXology had 70% market share for the digital comic books segment). I found it to be one of the most successful programs for indie creators aside from Kickstarter and Amazon Kindle. There is still the distribution route for printed comic books, but I’m sure many indie comic book creators miss the ComiXology Submit channel. Most of the comic book industry’s focus has shifted back to Marvel, DC, and Image Publishers.

Overall, I later realized that my experience was what a successful indie comic book launch looks like initially. In the startup world this was probably equivalent to going from Idea to MVP, and zero to one. The one to scale would have most likely involved printed distribution and many more trade events. Remember to recognize the small victories and be thankful as you grow. Although everyone only hears about said creators biggest homerun, in general, giant launches are rare for your first project.

I’ve been fortunate to work for several #1 brands, as well as lead a few funded startups. While a marketer leading the growth of Dolphin robotic pool cleaners for almost 4 years, I had many small victories monthly as I enabled growth from $49 million to more than $120 million in sales and establishing Dolphin as a thought leader and growing market share from 40% to 70% in the US market in just 3 years.

Whether your project is big or small in scope at the beginning, bootstrapped or funded, be a positive brand ambassador and recognize small victories so you build the endurance to travel across mountains of growth as you establish your unique brand.