Too busy for more business?

There’s a wonderful “problem” that happens in business when you’re consistently marketing, networking and following up. You start to get busy and then, as your clients come to know and trust you more, busier and pretty soon you’re indispensable to your clientele and can’t imagine taking on more work!

Even as your practice grows and you are able to allocate more time to client service you can’t neglect your marketing.

It often starts innocently enough:

• you don’t blog this month
• the ezine goes out less frequently
• Twitter account? what Twitter account?
• you forget to follow up with leads
• there’s no time to develop new programs!

So how do you balance it all, especially when you used to have all sorts of free time and now you’re busy working and marketing always takes the backseat?

1. Get Help.

That’s right, you need a team! Even as I grow I’m incorporating more team support. While I write 100% of my own original content, another team member is responsible for editing, formatting and queuing the newsletter and blog each week. Find ways you can outsource the tedious, boring or time consuming portions of marketing with a VA or even a blog plugin!

2. Automate.

I know it’s hard to follow up with leads who don’t seem interested when you have paying, interested clients right in front of you. But you’re not marketing for new clients tomorrow, but in 6 months when the current clients are done. It’s okay to automate through technology the follow up to continue giving value until clients are ready to get started with you.

Also look at ways to automate your service delivery including scheduling, worksheets and reminders to save you time and energy.

3. Be Grateful.

There’s nothing like too much success causing frustration. I remember very clearly when I recognized that I needed more help in the business. One day I was working and saw a notification that another one of my contributions was in Mashable and my first thought was “another one? sigh.”

Thankfully I was able to recognize that I wasn’t unhappy with Mashable, I was tired of all the admin stuff related and needed to find a way to outsource it. Now I’m happily working with a team and putting out even more content without any of the bad attitude!

As your business grows you’ll be challenged in your personal growth as well. It’s a process, and the best way to ensure you stay busy with new clients coming in is to stay on top of your marketing and follow up with systems that work.

When you’re too busy to take on more business it’s a sign of growth and business maturity. What you do with that opportunity is up to you!