Recently I made a post about the laughable practice of cutting back in order to grow your business. As crazy as that idea is, I’m about to tell you why you should do exactly that.
When I talk of cutting back, I usually mean cutting costs, dropping service levels, reducing marketing and other things of the nature. This time though, I’m talking of cutting back on the work you accept.
In order to grow, in both a financial and personal sense, you need to be doing new and more challenging work. If you don’t, you’ll be doing the same work for the same money for the forseeable future. And so, we reach the problem. If you’re accepting new and more challenging work, what happens to your old work?
You need to let go. You should be dropping ten to fifteen percent of your client base every few years to allow for real, organic growth. Although that might sound slighty harsh, I don’t intend it to be. Don’t dump your clients, leaving them out in the cold. It simply means you explain to the clients why you no longer do that particular type of work, and assist them to find suitable alternatives if possible.
That’s the key to growing your business. New horizons bring new opportunities, and new opportunities are where the profits reside.