I always get a big “ah ha” from my clients when I take them through the “Size Isn’t Everything” exercise. It’s so easy to take ourselves out, when we become too general and lose track of what we really need.

For instance, in a workshop I held recently, one of the clients set “getting new clients” as an objective. This is not a bad thing to do, but it can create overwhelm if not considered from the right perspective.

She explained how she was struggling to get in front of new people and, “…just really needed new customers.” but it wasn’t happening easily.

Now, there are MANY things to say about this scenario; however, this article is specifically about perspective, so, here’s how I coached her through that;

I asked, “Could you handle 100 new clients this week?”

Her eyes got really big and she immediately said, “No.”

“Could you handle 50 new customers?”

“No.”

“How many could you take on easily this week?”

“About 3.”

“So, that is your new client number. How does that feel?”

“More manageable”

“Could some of that new business even come from an existing customer?”

“Well, yes it could.”

“So why not start there, where you’ve already proven yourself? Remember you don’t need a million people to want your business today. Usually its just a few. Size (quantity in this case) isn’t everything.”

So often we think of growing our business as needing to have loads of new customers coming through the door, when in reality we couldn’t handle that volume of business. The pressure to get new customers can create a feeling of overwhelm, which constricts our energy and can stop us in our tracks. To open the flow, take a reality check, work from the customers you already have and remember that size isn’t everything in building your business.

So there you are, crazed about what to do next. Feeling overwhelmed and doubtful. For  entrepreneurs this scenario could present itself on a regular basis. What can you do to shift out of paralysis and into mindful action?

1 – Go Play.

You’re in constriction mode which means that neither the blood in your body nor your energy of attraction is moving in the direction you need it. You are probably not thinking very clearly and likely to take some random action just to feel like you’re being productive. STOP.

You need to breath and gain perspective so that you can take mindful, inspired action. Go play; music, art, a video game, walk in a natural setting, take lunch at the zoo, or tea with your 6 year-old.  (You get the idea.)  You have to disrupt the existing pattern and create a new one. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time, an hour will do.  But an hour of restorative engagement will take weeks off of the frustration meter.

2-  Go De-clutter.   

Clearing physical space also opens up your energetic space. Sometimes all you need to get things flowing from the energetic world is to create a little order in the physical world. So go clean a drawer, the trunk of your car or some other small space and put the physical world into alignment with your intentions. This distracts the mind and pulls you out of that infinite loop.

3 – Go Help Someone Else.

Getting your mind off of your work and into service for someone else is a great way to break the bond of overwhelm and gain a new perspective.

All of this may sound ridiculous, but I’ll say this, How’s that overwhelm working for you?  You don’t have to believe me, just try it for yourself and see. You have to do something differently to experience a different result.

You need a profit pathway

One of the most frustrating things for entrepreneurs is to have a vision of where we want to go, proceed to throw all energy, money and tactics at that vision, only to marginally move our revenue figures.

There’s a tool that can help you get a grip on what’s happening so that you can conserve your resources, use them to your highest good, and make more mon.ey.

It’s called a profit pathway.  I built it like a staircase, where each bar is like a range of products or services in your business.  The first bar, or in this case, stack of coins, is what you do for free;  activities that you engage in to broaden awareness and simply share your expertise. Think of it as goodwill. These items could be newsletters, public speaking, white papers, etc.

The subsequent bars represent “bands” or ranges of products that you offer with increasing price points (for service providers this also means increasing access to your personal time). So that, your customers pay more, for more of your time, or greater levels of expertise. You don’t have to have 6 bars, you could have fewer.

A range of bands might include:

• Free
• Lower Price Point with No personal contact; books, work books, self study courses
• Mid-range; group courses or more specialized products
• High range; private sessions or highest quality

The key is to actually build from the top down, focusing on current clients first. Its always easier to upsell an existing client, than to cultivate a new client. This approach to nurturing what you already have, is a great way to move your revenue needle with less effort but greater effect!