Busy today doesn’t mean busy tomorrow

6th, Oct 2026

Your business is going well. New clients are being referred to you, and you’re generally satisfied with your income, even though you wish it were higher. While you know you should market because there could be a downturn, right now you have enough. You don’t have time to spare, and marketing doesn’t seem that necessary, especially because you get your business through referrals.

But busy today doesn’t mean busy tomorrow.

Many small firms won’t start marketing until they see referrals drop. By then, they are stressed and start using various marketing tactics (often without a strategic plan), hoping they bring in clients quickly. However, marketing takes time to work. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so you must promote yourself even when business is good.

Why do you need to market?

1. Your referral network can change without you realizing it

Referrals are crucial for professional service firms, and most of them are willing to put in the time to build a strong referral network. However, referrals aren’t guaranteed and can slow down for many reasons.

First, that network must be continually nurtured. When professionals get busy, they forget to check in with contacts. They only reach out when they need something and don’t make the reciprocal introductions or provide other help that keeps the relationship going. If you are taking your network for granted because you’re swamped with work, you may start to lose business.

Next, even if nothing has gone wrong with your relationships, referrals may drop for reasons outside your control.

For example:

– Older referral sources may retire or gradually reduce their practices.

– A referral source may move into a different area of work.

– Someone who once regularly sent you matters may simply have fewer opportunities to do so.

– Referral sources may begin networking and marketing more actively themselves, and their introductions may be spread among more people.

– Your contacts may assume you’re not looking for business because you aren’t marketing or showing up at events.

This is why you must cultivate new contacts all the time. Marketing helps you reach more people, make a strong impression on those just getting to know you and build strong relationships that ultimately bring in business. The goal isn’t to replace your existing network. You just want to avoid becoming too dependent on people you can’t control.

2. Being busy makes you easier to forget

It’s great to have plenty of business, but your contacts have short memories. They are out meeting others who do what you do, learning about their business and seeing their marketing. If you’re not visible, people may stop thinking about you when an appropriate matter comes up. You’re not top of mind anymore, so you don’t get the introduction or referral.

You must make time for networking and individual follow-up. Nothing fully replaces face time with your contacts. However, being busy means there are limits on your time.

Marketing supports your business development activities. It ensures you’re visible even when you cannot go to every event or have one-on-one meetings regularly. You need marketing to consistently remind your referral sources what you do, who you help and how you add value, so you continue to get introductions and referrals.

3. Marketing takes time to work

If referrals slow down in January and you suddenly decide you need to market, you can’t fix the problem in February. Developing a marketing strategy, updating your website, strengthening your LinkedIn presence, launching an email newsletter, writing and doing seminars and other activities take time to implement and produce any meaningful results. If you’re starting from scratch, it’s even harder. By continuing to market when business is good, you’ll be in a better place to ramp up your efforts to bring in more clients when business is bad.

Consistent marketing is key

Your goal should be to have a core set of marketing activities that are always going on no matter how busy you are. When you have more time, you can supplement these, but the basics will help you stay top of mind. You don’t need to invest in a big marketing budget or set aside significant time. Activities like the ones below are cost-effective and can be substantially delegated to internal staff or a marketer you hire:

– Post on LinkedIn at least 2 times per week and spend 15-30 minutes per week commenting on other people’s posts

– Send a monthly email newsletter

– Write a short blog post once per month for your website and repurpose it for LinkedIn and your email newsletter

– Review your existing content to determine whether any of it can be repurposed for additional marketing purposes

– Check who interacted with your LinkedIn posts and email newsletter at least twice per month and follow up with them

– Ask clients and referral sources for reviews and give them one in return as appropriate.

When you have more time, go to 3 LinkedIn posts per week and spend an hour per week commenting. Blog more frequently. Develop an FAQ section of your website that you regularly add to. Expand blog posts into articles that you try to get published or seminars/webinars that you host yourself or pitch to an organization. Create videos for LinkedIn and your website. Update your website with new activities, case studies, success stories, testimonials and other relevant content. Keep your Google business page and social media pages up to date.

The precise tactics matter less than having a consistent presence that doesn’t disappear whenever your workload increases.

When referral sources see your marketing, they are more likely to remember you when the right opportunity arises. If they pass along your name to someone, that person will check you out online and find information that confirms you are someone they want to contact.

There will always be times when client work has to come first. However, if you have a system in place, you can still continue basic marketing activities, so you aren’t starting from scratch in case of a downturn.

Don’t wait until you need marketing to start it. Contact us for a free consultation.

Tagged: best practices, referral marketing