Approach business development one small step at a time.

​Most of you who are not dedicated business development professionals dread the business development part of your practice. The excuses I hear are endless as to why professionals conveniently avoid business development! "I have been buried in client work." "I tried but it didn't work." "I'll get to it next week." "I don't have the right personality for business development." The list goes on!

I get it. In the ideal world, clients would keep calling you because you do good work. Doing good work is table stakes today. The reality is that competition is too tough to continue with just that approach. If you don't stay in regular contact with your network, your competitors can steal many of those opportunities away from you. Out of sight, out of mind!

My recommendation - dedicate at least 15-20 minutes every day on business development and see what happens.  It could be as simple as updating your contact list, sending a few emails, or making a few phone calls.  Do the necessary work to get you out of your cave and meeting with your important contacts in person. Whatever you do, try to do it every day, ideally at the beginning of the day before the day gets away from you.

Activity begets results and you will be amazed at the difference it can make in surfacing new opportunities.

Try this approach for 30 days to see if it makes a difference.  I can guarantee you that it will! This month is ideal before we approach the Thanksgiving holiday.

No more excuses, gang!  Have some fun with it. Be patient. And most importantly, believe in yourself. There are a lot of people out there who need your help. They just need to learn who you are first!