{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "The feast-or-famine cycle has a third option: using slow periods as intentional time to work on your business — if you plan ahead and budget for it.",
  "path": "/articles/feast/",
  "publishedAt": "2021-01-06T01:25:55.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "tags": [
    "Getting Clients"
  ],
  "textContent": "I have a bone to pick with a phase in the consulting industry: feast or famine.\n\nFeast. When work is good. You’re booked solid.\nFamine. When work is bad. Your pipeline is dry.\n\nI think there’s another part here that we aren’t seeing: the time and attention we’re able to put towards working on our own business.\n\nWhen you’re in feast mode, you’re booked solid and turning away work. And it’s very tempting when the work keeps coming to say yes to ‘just one more’ project — and skip the time you’d spend working on your business.\n\nDon’t get me wrong, feast is good. Making money is good.\n\nBut there is a cost here that a lot of consultants — myself included — often pay without realizing it: we give up the time we’d be spending on our business and focus on the client’s business.\n\nMeanwhile, in famine, we switch from having a scarcity of time to having an abundance of time available to work on our business.\n\nHowever, the critical question is always “Do I have enough cash to sustain another week/month/quarter with no incoming client work?”\n\nIf you don’t, then focusing on a strategy to get more clients makes the most sense.\n\nBut if you do have that cash, if you can afford to take a month off form client work, you’re now in the position to spend time working on your business (or not working, if you like).\n\nThis break, sabbatical, walkabout, or vacation is time that you can spend:\n\nWorking on your own products (e.g., ebooks, courses, trainings, software)\nWorking on improving your business (e.g., reading books, taking courses, attending trainings, improving operations, making a marketing plan, updating your website)\nImproving your underlying business systems (e.g., marketing, sales, funnel optimization, service optimization, messaging)\nNot working (e.g., book that ticket to Costa Rica and spend a month in a condo on the beach, swimming in the ocean every day)\n\nI think there’s a freedom in taking time off from client work. And the trick is to budget for it.\n\nHeck, you could even think of it as you hiring yourself for a week (or a month) to work on your business.\n\nThat sounds valuable to me.\n\nIt doesn’t have to be ‘feast’ or ‘famine.’ It can be ‘feast’ or ‘freedom.’\n\nBut that requires having the resources — clients, cash, capital, etc. — to free yourself up to work on your business.\n\nIf you want to escape from the Feast or Famine rollercoaster, what’s your plan? What steps are you taking? Hit reply and let me know.\n\nExcelsior!\n\nKai",
  "title": "Feast"
}