“One of your clients has to be you.” – I hadn’t thought about it framed quite that way, but I whole-heartily agree, and I didn’t mean to imply that scarcity entailed only working with your clients and not trying to expand at all (though I certainly see how it was interpreted that way with my singular consulting approach.)

Back to the restaurant example. Does an exclusive restaurant operating at capacity have trouble getting new people in the door when old customers move away? Perhaps. Maybe. Not Necessarily. You still grow, but you can now be more selective about the clients and work you accept. There’s some great agencies making a ton of money just doing a couple of projects at a time. Brains on Fire comes to mind.

If the projects are fun, challenging, intriguing your current employees will enjoy them. Do they want somewhere to move-up to, absolutely. So you’re absolutely right, you do have to be growing, but like you mentioned, there has to be a plan in place to do it intelligently. And you let your best employees grow with you, same with your best clients. With the others you’ve hoped you’ve prepared them enough to move along and be successful when they’re ready.

You’ve added some great insights to the discussion. I assuredly missed addressing a couple. What’d I miss? What can I elaborate on? Where do we still disagree?

Having learned that lesson, I try my best not to ever sacrifice my core ideals for a bigger paycheck. Sometimes it’s a tough temptation to fend off, but if you continue thinking long-term and over-arching broad scope of what you want to achieve, chances are you’ll make the right decisions (for you) more often than not.

And your consultancy page is way better than mine, which is completely blank. Thankfully, I haven’t had to use it yet, but it’s been in the works for some time now. If you find some good examples please pass them on, and I’ll do the same

There’s no sense grinding out hundreds of prospects when you can provide valuable free content that will have them begging you to hand you their money so they can get the “paid stuff.” Then work your tail off to over-deliver. Not only will you retain that client, but they’ll tell 2 more. It’s not an advanced science or philosophy, but common sense.

Please follow up and let me know if your team has any increased success or if there is anything else I can do to help you and/or your team.

To your question, this is what works for me, and it’s what I anticipate works best for smaller, more flexible organizations like you’ve alluded to. I don’t want to say that it’s 100% applicable to bigger organizations trying to grow their clientele because I haven’t acquired enough experience in that niche yet and I’m not one to preach it before practicing it.

What I will say is that I’ve witnesses a lot of companies try to grow to quickly when their infrastructure isn’t well suited for growth. Sometimes account managers aren’t ready to head up entire teams’ and often times the company doesn’t yet have the funds to bring in a more experienced outsider. Growing too fast and having to scale back is worrisome. Taking your time, providing your current clients with tremendous value and having them become your evangelists as a result (usually) ensures that your institution grows at a pace indicative of what you’re capable of leaving you with time to implement the necessary alterations for long-term success.

Patience is a virtue, both in business and life. If we try to run too fast we’re likely to trip on our own feet.

And glad you liked that quote since it’s a Ryan original. LOL

Excellent post. It helps me realize that one of our biggest assets, which often goes either overlooked or abused, is our time. Your passion for your work is obvious, and I’m sure your clients see that. I can tell that if you devote your time to something, that your client is getting your authentic passion, drive, and desire to help, which in my book is damn near priceless. Bravo!