We have a great client list at fraoch and are always keen to uncover new opportunities, whether that’s more work with existing clients, or completely new relationships.  One of the key learning curves for me personally in this first year has been balancing future business with the resource available, when at the moment that resource is essentially just me. 

I’ve been lucky enough to receive quite a lot of business so far from people I know and from referrals. I’ve not needed to do a lot of proactive business development work, though I always like to keep the profile of fraoch high in the marketplace.

But I’ve just stumbled across a fantastic business development approach, and I’m prepared to share the secret.  It’s simple and even something you’ll enjoy doing: go away on holiday to some far flung destination like Africa for two weeks! I’ve analysed it and it seems to work in three ways:

1.  Tie up loose ends. Knowing you’re going to be out of contact for two weeks focuses the mind to firm up any possible client business before the holiday and agree a suitable schedule, making sure there’s lots of business on the books when you come back; 

2.  Sort out the important things. Going away makes you realise that you need a back-up contact point, so you have the conversations you’ve been thinking about sooner rather than later;

3. The phone keeps ringing - in the past few weeks I’ve had more requests for meetings and input than ever before.  Somehow everyone seems to sense I’m about to go away…

So if business ever looks quiet in the future, I’ll be off to book another exotic holiday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 2:30 pm and is filed under fraoch news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.