Starting a business is hard. Sustaining a business is even harder.

Making this leap from promising startup to successful business is the true test for all entrepreneurs. The X factor here is early success. It is not uncommon to launch with a boom. Anything new is intriguing and usually worth trying, especially now in a socially driven era of business. We can thank the exploding cloud-based marketplace (driving down costs and barriers to adoption), surge of free trials and demos, and the all-important social endorsements of friends to thank for this (to say nothing of the "new, shiny-object" force). So, if you are true to your offering, your launch will "stick" and business will grow. That initial surge of success is sweet. But a sour aftertaste looms close: business stagnation and decay.

Entitlement and complacency are the cause of this souring of success. Yes, success begets success, but it's not magic. No one is granted endless prosperity merely because they started with a strong lead. Those who take their early success for granted are quickly dismayed by clients who don't return and dwindling leads. Entrepreneurs who mange to avoid this quagmire share one behavior in common: They never relax their discipline.

My freelance business (as a progressive editor for indie authors) is a telltale case study of this phenomenon in action.

I enjoyed a hot start with freelance editing. My decisive and unambiguous style and breakout indie-author focus helped garner some great projects and solid prospects. The initial half-year was full. Success was streaming. Clients were pleased. Life was good—until it wasn't. Somewhere along the line my sense of urgency waned. My outreach efforts slowed. My opportunity research faded. Predictable results followed: diminished leads, stalled growth in quality projects and mounting frustration. The bottom line to my burdens was a dangerously relaxed discipline.

Thankfully, all is not lost if you momentarily loosen your grip on discipline. But you must act fast before your business stalls and it's too late to recover. Courses of action are many. Click to the next page to see the five things that worked best for me when I needed to reclaim fully my iron will of self-control.