Business Development Is Your Job Now

When you start a business, you think your job is the thing you’re good at.

You’re a designer, consultant, therapist, photographer, lawyer, coach, developer, accountant, dog walker — whatever. You started the company because you know how to do that thing well and, presumably, people will pay you to do it.

Then you discover the inconvenient truth: your job is also business development.

Actually, in the beginning, business development may be more of your job than the work itself.

Nobody is sitting around waiting to discover you

Even if you are exceptional at what you do, people have to know you exist, understand what you do, remember you when a need arises, trust you enough to hire you, and have some way to reach you. That doesn’t happen automatically.

For more than 30 years of running businesses, I’ve watched talented people struggle with this because they assume great work should create its own momentum. Sometimes it does. Referrals eventually become powerful. Reputation compounds. But even mature businesses need attention.

I still respond quickly when I see an opportunity. I still go to events. I still follow up with people. I still cultivate relationships. I still explain what I do.

Because taking your foot off the business-development gas has consequences — sometimes not today, but three or six months from now when the pipeline suddenly looks alarmingly empty.

Corporate refugees, this one stings

Inside a company, somebody else may have been responsible for marketing, sales, lead generation, contracts, billing and brand awareness. When you start your own company, congratulations: those departments are now you.

The good news

Business development doesn’t have to mean becoming a stereotypical salesperson. It can mean:

• Building relationships.
• Being useful.
• Staying visible.
• Asking questions and following up.
• Making introductions.
• Sharing what you know.
• Showing up consistently enough that people remember what problem you solve.

“Your expertise is what you sell. But building the business that allows you to sell it? That’s your job now.”

What’s your boulder?