Are feast and famine cycles a discipline issue?
I had a call this week with a woman who makes gorgeous handmade + VERY custom client gifts. The gifts are each their own little piece of art. One piece took her six coats of paint and four hours standing in front of a laser cutter, making sure nothing caught fire.
She is doing that DEEP WORK 💅🏻
Her project cycle is three months, start to finish. And for those three months, she does not have time to generate new leads.
"I can't do the delivery and work on my own business at the same time," she said.
So she swings back and forth:
Aggressive lead gen for a stretch,
then heads down delivery,
then she resurfaces like Nosferatu from the crypt to start hustling for her next client.
Sound familiar?
This whiplash is not only bad for your bank account, it's also just stressful as heck to look at your calendar and see tumbleweeds in the coming months.
She just said "it's a me problem."
NO, mama! It's not you! Its a systems problem!
Feast and famine cycles can feel like a discipline issue.
Like if you just multitasked better or tried hard or drank more water, you could build and sell at the same time.
There are three ways to lighten your workload so you have time to deliver AND sell, and they often work in tandem:
1️⃣ Find a more efficient process.
Sometimes it's less about automations and delegation, more about how you are going about completing tasks. Automation and delegation can't fix a broken process.
Just like you plan your stops on a day of running errands based on where shops are on the map - you can also plan the way you complete tasks and projects based on processes that are the most efficient.
For example: instead of emailing your client back and forth for everything you need from them before a photoshoot, and then emailing them when you think of it to confirm the details -
let's create a CHECKLIST template that is used every time. It can be shared with your client and customized for each photoshoot. This checklist becomes the source of truth that everyone refers back to and uses to prepare.
2️⃣ Find a better tool or leverage more automations.
OK, so lets say we already have a pretty efficient process. Then what?
Tools can complete A LOT of tasks for you! This just saves you time, full stop.
A CRM like Dubsado can send an automated onboarding email to your client as soon as they sign their contract and pay their deposit.
Sometimes a Zapier automation is as simple as sending your team a Slack message when a client has submitted their onboarding form, or as complicated as creating a complex folder system for each new project.
Smarter tools or intentional automations can go a long way.
3️⃣ Give your team the things they need to succeed.
I am impressed with how many creative agencies I meet already have some form of SOPs / documentation for their team before I start working with them.
Q: So why isn't their team using the documentation?
A: Because the SOPs are hard to find!
When I build an SOP library for a client, I am linking that SOP directly to the task it is related to. That way, when they are assigned a task they don't need to go searching for the HOW (or ask you!)
They are more likely to complete tasks without help from you AND the work is done more consistently at a higher quality.
Once these three things are in motion, you suddenly have a bit more time and brain space for your high impact work: like sales!
These three pieces (process, automations, people) are a big focus of the work I do.
We map how work actually moves through your business and build around it, so your pipeline doesn't go dark every time you get busy doing the work you're actually good at.
If you're choosing between building your next masterpiece and finding the person who'll pay for it, we should talk.
