The 5 stages of grief created by Elizabeth Kubler Ross listed five emotional states people go through when they experience a big loss such as death of a loved one. These stages were listed 1-5 but could really happen in any order, with people jumping from one number to the next and back again.
Starting a business has its own set of emotional experiences and, just like grief, the order can be random but you can expect to experience them all.
Below is the list of 5 stages of startup grief:
- Excitement – You have thought of an idea. You can see yourself being the boss, calling the shots, managing your own time and life. You believe in the thing you want to sell and can’t wait to get it out the the world. This will be great!!!!
- Confusion – full of excited energy at your back, you are ready to get started. You have been told you need to be legal but realize you’re not sure what legal structure is best. Everyone is saying you need social media to get the word out but you’ve never used snapchat. You know business finances are important but you have no idea what a profit and loss statement looks like or how to project cash flow. Confusion sets in.
- Overwhelm – knowing that the only way to get through the confusion is to get informed, you start to do your research. You find out about legal structures, watch videos on how to use snapchat, sort through excel cash flow templates and do all sorts of other research on your industry, completion, marketing and funding. You now start to sense how much there is to do and a sense of overwhelm takes over.
- Doubt – much like confusion, the only way to deal with overwhelm is to get started. You choose a legal structure, create your snapchat account, start blogging and work on your product/service so that it’s customer ready. And through (almost) every action taken you will wonder “am I doing this right?” Doubt is your constant companion through action.
- Uncertainty – Your website is done, your product/service is ready to go, your marketing plan is in place, you are ready to launch and…you have no idea if any of this is going to work. Yes, uncertainty, and not overwhelming confidence, is the last step in your stages of startup grief. And this is a good thing. With all the work you have done, you are now aware that the marketplace is complicated, that there is planning but no guarantees and that entrepreneurship requires tremendous experimentation with some necessary failures along the way. The excitement that you first felt has been replaced with a more informed and realistic understanding of what it takes to launch a business.
The five stages of startup grief can be counted on, no matter what your industry or personal background. Each stage of developing a business comes with unique challenges which will bring about strong emotions. Knowing that they are headed your way can help you accept and work through them with the full knowledge that you are on the right track.