Christopher V. Flett

I’m reminded today on the importance of focusing on a model and not the money. We’ve brought on a handful of new coaches into the Ghost CEO in the last quarter and I tell all of them, ‘focus on the model and the money will come.’ If you have read this blog before, you know the love I have for money. What I have learned is that the more you focus on, obsess, micromanage, and fear money, the farther it stays away from you. Money will either drive you or it will cripple you depending on your relationship with it. Doesn’t it seem like those that have money always get more and those that don’t never have enough? I believe it’s because when you are successful, you don’t sit on pins and needles waiting for a client to come in. You just keep going with the work and putting more fishing lines in the water. When you are obsessed about a deal closing so you can pay your rent, you focus only on that deal coming in, rather than focusing on creating more opportunities. This is what I did when I first started in business. I’d check email 100x a day, pick up the phone to make sure it was working, and do crazy things waiting to hear back on proposals. Now, I don’t sweat it. I just keep on working the model and the model always brings in money. The more irons in the fire, the more money that gets made.

If you find yourself pissing around with the same prospects that want to see more and more proposals, cut them loose. You get to a point of diminishing returns when your efforts to get the work start to outweigh the effort of doing the work itself. I know people that put 25 hours into a proposal/presentation so they can get 25 hours of work. Ummmm, you just cut your billable rate in half you knuckle head. I think that no more than 5% of time should go into any proposal. If you are trying to get a one month consulting gig, you should put no more than one day into getting it.

“What the hell are you talking about Chris, it takes me days to write proposals, do the research, budget…blah, blah, blah.” People, don’t waste time pitching ‘wood’. If it isn’t a sure deal, don’t engage. You don’t do yourself or anyone else any favours by putting countless hours into something that you have little or no chance of getting. Focus on building your model through connections, champions, clear niche markets, knowing the three questions, and engaging with a hunting pack. You need to either clean house or it will collapse on top of you.

C.