After two years in business, she was still networking with wrong people. As a project management consultant, her ideal target market consists of large corporations with a designated budget for managing processes in their company. The problem is, she isn't talking to right people.

"I feel absolutely defeated. I'm not sure I can do this anymore. Maybe I should be selling something completely different. People either want what I offer but don't want to pay for it or they don't see value in what I offer. I meet prospects at networking meetings and call them to set up a meeting. Then I spend a day researching their industry, so that I can speak intelligently during meeting. Then on day of meeting, I spend half a day driving to and from their office. Within next few days, I put together a proposal for them and send it off. Then I follow-up with them every week to see if they want to move forward with project."

I felt need to jump in. "Okay, can I stop you for a minute? It sounds like you're spending a lot of time up-front. Let's say it takes you 3 hours to drive to/from and attend a networking event, 30 minutes to follow-up with a prospect to set up a meeting, 4 hours to research their industry to prepare for meeting, 4 hours to drive to/from and attend meeting, 3 hours to put together a proposal, and 1 hour to follow-up several times. That's 15 1/2 hours pursuing one prospect."

"And biggest issue here is that they may or may not end up being a qualified prospect because it doesn't sound like you spend any time during your initial conversation making sure they want your service, can afford your service and are person to make decision to purchase your service."

Laura was floored. "I never even thought about it that way. I just need to get more business, so I feel like I need to be out there meeting people and at least getting chance to send them a proposal. I don't really have anything else to do at my office sometimes. If I wasn't doing this, what would I do all day?"

Like Laura, many early-stage business owners feel better if they are busy, making calls, going to networking events, meeting clients, doing proposals, etc. But if you're staying busy just to stay busy, you end up spending a lot more hours working for a lot less money which usually results in feeling need to put in even more hours to make business "work."

“I just don’t get it! I’m putting all my time and energy into this business, and I’m still scraping by. I’m so tired of fighting to ‘just to make it’ but this is what I really want to do.”

“Tell me about what’s happening in your life,” I inquired.

“My wife says I’m spending too much time working, and I know she’s right. But I also know that I’m one who is responsible for paying most of bills. As it is, I’m probably working 80 hours a week.”

“I really want to spend more time with her and our son, but if we’re barely making it now, I can’t imagine what would happen if I slowed down. I’d lose business for sure. What I need is more time, not less.”

Oh, it was terrible to hear Mark experiencing such pain. It brought back all of feelings I had also experienced during first years of my business several years earlier.

He had fallen into same trap that many of us do. He believed that his degree of business success was directly related to number of hours he put in. And, I knew, that until we altered that belief, he would never be free to achieve great financial success and to enjoy freedom that life of a business owner can provide.

Somewhere along way, many of us pick up perceived connection between time and results. Yes, it’s true that if you spend 10 hours a day practicing piano that you will likely be a better performer than if you spend 5 minutes a day. And that same logic might apply to specific skills you use in your business. If you spend 4 hours every day doing anything (creating graphic designs, writing press releases, writing sales letters), you will undoubtedly develop your skills.

But, in an endeavor like business, success is based on much more than total amount of time you put in. It’s based on what you do during that time, what skills you have, what customers want, how you present yourself, what you charge, how you market your business, etc.

Some things in life are easy …

Staying Thin = Eating Well + Exercising Baking Cookies = Measuring Ingredients + Following Directions

The stinker part about running a business is that you get out what you put in. And, it’s not easy to figure out what monster wants to eat – but that’s your job as a business owner.

If you spend countless hours networking at events that don’t yield results, you are adding time to your week. If you re-create wheel every time you have to put a proposal together, you are taking up time that you could be spending on other marketing activities, taking a lunch break, spending afternoon with your spouse and kids. If you are starting numerous projects without bringing any of them to completion, you are wasting time spinning your wheels rather than profiting from one of those great ideas.