Spring is my favorite season. Seeds and bulbs buried in the soil break the surface and unfurl to greet the longer days. Barren fruit trees invite bees to shake & shimmy in pollen or sip nectar among fragrant blossoms.

My creative energy seems to follow the seasons. I’m more energized in the spring than I am in the throes of winter, for example. As I come alive in the spring–a time I consider my “new year”–I have creative energy to take on new opportunities and partnerships and create new offerings.

As entrepreneurs, we can make conscious choices about how to run our businesses, depending on which business stage we’re in.

pay attention to your creative rhythm

Your creative rhythm is critical information to knowing how you want to run your business. Do you pay attention to your own particular creative rhythm?

What is your daily rhythm? When are you energized? When do you feel like taking a nap? (Do you let yourself take a nap? I’m pro-nap!)

Take stock of when you do and don’t have energy over a week, a month, a quarter, a year. Do you notice any patterns?

Observe. Write it down. Take notes.

overlay your creative rhythm with market seasonality

Once you know a little bit about your creative rhythm, you can take this information and combine it with your knowledge of the seasonality of your business. It’s not all about self-work and personal development, though it’s an important process!

If you’re a life coach, January is a great month to help new clients reach their goals. What can you prepare you or your business for new clients in January?

In many businesses, big and small, summer tends to be slower than other times of the year. Is there a way to be proactive about the summer slump? Can you use this time to create offerings for the fall? Or can you do something at other times of the year to mitigate the inevitable slow times?

This is just one way to think about your creative rhythm, but it’s a foundational element of how you want to structure your business.

don’t go changing…to try to please me

Maybe you’ve noticed that I haven’t suggested you be more productive, wake up earlier, or  change anything in your current schedule. I’m not asking you to change a thing, because you are already good enough, perfect enough and smart enough to market your business as you are.

This is the first in a series about the importance of honoring your creative rhythm in creating a sustainable marketing practice for you and your business.