Watch the seeds more than the harvest

It’s good to watch the harvest come in. For your business, that likely means seeing new clients sign up and your revenue head in the right direction. This can be a dangerous time, though, as it can cause companies to ease off on sales efforts while they enjoy the fruit of their labor.

In many cases this is what causes “feast & famine” cycles, particularly for small businesses.

• Things are slow, so you work hard on your marketing
• Business comes in, so you ease off on your marketing while you work on the new clients
• Things slow down again (because you got soft on marketing), so you get back to it again

Robert Louis Stevenson put it like this:

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

We certainly take time to celebrate victories, but I also work hard to make sure we never ease off too far. Every day, I make time to plant more seeds: publish content on social media, follow-up with leads we’ve been talking to, reach out to friends that I’ve not seen in a while, etc.

Those things can be difficult to find time for when things are busy, so they may slip a little bit, but I keep them on my radar every day to try to create a smooth flow of work into the future.

The harvest is wonderful, but the seeds are essential.

Originally published at https://www.mickmel.com on November 29, 2022.