Someone I know recently posted on LinkedIn asking whether anyone had any work available because a couple of projects fell through and they didn’t have much in their pipeline.
It was an honest post and one that will resonate with many small business owners (including me). It’s so easy to get busy doing the doing that marketing and business development fall by the wayside.
That’s what inspired me to write this blog because it highlighted a familiar business problem: the feast and famine cycle.
One month, you have more work than you can handle. You’re working long hours, managing customers, completing projects and trying to keep everything moving. Marketing is the last thing on your mind because you don’t have the time to do it and you don’t need any more work.
Then, the projects finish and new enquiries slow down. You suddenly realise there isn’t enough work coming through behind them.
And, that’s when the panic begins.
You post on LinkedIn. You contact people in your network. You send an email to past customers. You might run an advert or start posting on social media again.
Sometimes this creates a few leads. You become busy again, marketing slips down the priority list and the cycle starts all over.
In most small businesses, the owner wears multiple hats. They may be responsible for delivering the work, managing staff, dealing with customers, sending invoices, solving problems and overseeing the finances.
Sales and marketing is just one more thing competing for their attention.
When the business is busy, customer work naturally takes priority. It is urgent, visible and directly connected to revenue. Sales and marketing feels less important because there is already plenty of work coming in.
But marketing rarely delivers immediate results. What you do today may create an enquiry in several weeks or even months. If you wait until the pipeline is empty before restarting your marketing, you may have to endure a quiet period before that activity begins to pay off. This is what creates the famine period.
It is a little like waiting until your car has completely run out of fuel before looking for a petrol station.
One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing is that it can be switched on whenever you need more sales.
Some channels can produce results relatively quickly, but most marketing works through consistent exposure. People need time to become aware of your business, understand what you offer and decide whether they trust you.
Your potential customers may not need your service when they first see your content. They might come across a LinkedIn post, hear your name through a referral, visit your website or meet you at a networking event. Each interaction builds familiarity.
When they eventually need what you offer, the goal is for your business to be one of the first they think of.
If your marketing disappears every time you get busy, you also disappear from the minds of potential customers. Competitors who continue communicating may be more likely to receive the enquiry not because they are necessarily better, but because they are more visible at the right time.
We’re not saying that marketing can guarantee that every month you’ll have the same amount of work. It can, however, create a healthier and more predictable flow of opportunities.
Telling a small business owner to “just be consistent” isn’t particularly helpful.
Consistency is difficult when the business depends on you. You may understand that marketing is important, but when a customer has a problem, an employee needs help or a deadline is approaching, marketing will usually be pushed aside.
And having the physical time available isn’t the only barrier, there is also the mental load.
You’ve probably experienced it. The thought ‘What should I post?’ and nothing comes to mind. Switching into the right mindset for marketing can take time you simply don’t have when you’re busy.
That’s why when there is no clear strategy, marketing becomes a series of random decisions and actions. An idea appears, so you try it. You continue for a few weeks, get busy or fail to see an immediate return, and stop.
Later, when the pipeline becomes thin, you try something else.
This approach makes marketing feel time-consuming, expensive and ineffective. In reality, the problem isn’t marketing itself. It’s the lack of clear direction that makes decision making easy.
The best time to market your business is not when you desperately need work. It is when the business is busy and you can be more selective about the opportunities you want to attract.
Marketing from a position of confidence allows you to focus on the right customers and the most profitable work. Marketing from a position of panic can lead to discounting, taking on poorly suited customers or accepting projects you would normally avoid.
That doesn’t mean you should promote your business aggressively when you are already at capacity. Your marketing should be paced to suit the business.
For example, you could focus on building awareness, nurturing future customers, staying connected with previous clients and strengthening your reputation. If you are fully booked, you may promote work with a longer lead time or create a waiting list.
The objective isn’t simply to generate as many leads as possible. It is to create the right level of demand for the capacity of the business.
Small business marketing does not need to mean posting on every platform or launching a new campaign each month.
A sustainable system could be relatively simple:
The right marketing system should support the business, not become another full-time job for its owner.
It also helps to separate leading indicators from final results. Sales revenue is important, but it appears at the end of the process. Website enquiries, referral conversations, email responses, quote requests and qualified leads can provide earlier signs that your pipeline is developing.
The feast and famine cycle is not always caused by a lack of demand. Often, it happens because marketing stops and starts according to how busy the owner feels.
Breaking the cycle requires a change in mindset. Marketing cannot be treated as an emergency response that begins when the work runs out. It needs to be an ongoing business activity, just like managing cash flow, looking after customers or maintaining equipment.
That is easier said than done, particularly when you are already carrying most of the business on your shoulders. But a clear strategy, a realistic level of activity and the right support can make marketing far less overwhelming.
You may not eliminate every quiet period. Business will always have some natural ups and downs. But consistent, intentional marketing can make those fluctuations less extreme and give you more confidence about where your next piece of work is coming from.
If the feast and famine cycle feels familiar, let’s talk about creating a marketing system that keeps working, even when you’re busy.
