Feast and famine

Accountants are lucky.

Lucky in the sense that a lot of the work we do is ongoing or repeat business. So if we look after our clients and do the right things, our firms should grow in an incremental way as we add new clients.

In other sectors things are less straightforward. A contractor on a 6 month contract needs to find a new customer when the contract ends. The same goes for a builder when they finish the extension they are working on or the freelance designer putting finishing touches to a new company logo.

When the current job stops for these guys, there can be a gap until the next one starts. That’s not a nice place to be. Bills still need to be paid, life needs to go on, but money may be tight.

So what’s the solution? How can the feast and famine cycle be avoided?

It’s a particular challenge for start ups who may not have the profile or recognition to generate a steady flow of new enquiries. 

Let’s start with what won’t work. 

Just waiting passively for the next customer, the next job to arrive, won’t work. 

You need to make your own luck. That means in the fallow periods putting all your energy and focus into finding the next customer. Whatever it takes. Following up old contacts. Networking. Finding your social media channel and using it to engage with potential customers. Email. Direct mail. Cold calling. Measure the results and keep doing what works.

Then you get lucky. You get a good lead. Proposal leads to an order and you are on the way again.

It feels great. This what you love. You get stuck in. 

This time though, you need to try and break the cycle and get your next job lined up before you finish the new one. That means putting some of your time aside every week for marketing (attracting new leads) and selling (doing your pitch and closing the deal). I’d suggest that about 10 to 20% of your time is about right for this so that’s half to one day a week. It could be one set day every week or an hour or so a day. It just needs to get done.

The feast and famine cycle is not a good way to run a business. It needs discipline and focus to break it and have a more regular flow of work.

The ideal is that you choose when to be idle rather than having it imposed upon you. 

When you are on holiday after a good spell of continuous work and your next job or jobs are lined up for when you get back, you will know you are on the right track.

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