You struggle through the beginning of your business. You develop a strong mailing list to send your catalogs out to. You get everything down to a solid system where you know who you're targeting and you know how to best appeal to them.

A few years ago by where you stabilize everything. Your system is now completely in place and you can get a great catalog to your customers. Each year you send out your new catalog to that same mailing list, which is just big enough to cover all your expenses and give you a solid enough profit to get by on.

While it might seem as if this is exactly where you want to be, a moment like this carries with it a certain amount of risk many companies aren't aware of, and that risk is complacency.

Once a business has its customer base established many of them just stop trying to find new customers at that point. They settle into their environment and that's the end of it. They aren't looking to expand their catalog printing nor are they looking to make that mailing list bigger. Their current mailing list is doing all that they need it to, so why would they keep growing?

The reason is because eventually things are going to start deteriorating. Once you're stabilized the need to market begins to dwindle because you aren't looking for new customers, and that means your marketing slows or stops completely.

Eventually some of those customers start to move on from your catalog. Others might find a different catalog they prefer more because that company is directly marketing to them. There are all sorts of different things that can lead to a shift in your marketing, and if you weren't paying attention you'll find your customers slipping away and you have no marketing to bring them back.

The best way to stop this is by sticking by tight goals. The first goal is to reach a stage like this, but once you reach your goal have the next one lined up. Maybe you want to expand your catalog printing by a certain percentage and bring in that many more households into your mailing list. Maybe you want to increase the size of your catalog and therefore increase the chance at sales.

What the goal is won't matter as much as sticking by one. You never want to settle for what you currently have when you have more people out there waiting to start getting your catalog in the mail.

The second you stop increasing your business is the second you'll find your sales begin to slowly fall away. The process might be so slow you don't notice at first, but eventually it's going to happen. You need to make sure that isn't the case by always being sure to keep your marketing and your growth strong.