One of the temptations we face as consultants is to book ourselves solid and stay there for as long as possible.
But the problem with that is your business will suffer if you’re redlining the entire time.
At least 25% of your time should be spent on marketing and business development.
Ideally more when you’re not fully booked. You must always be marketing. It might look like writing, newsletters, podcasting, research, outreach, or a variety of other activities.
No more than 50% of your time should be spent on client work.
And it’s not enough to simply deliver the work you promise, either. You need to find ways to exceed expectations if you want to build long-term clients and referrals. Factor that into your equation when planning your workload.
The remaining 25% of your time should be spent working on your business.
This might include admin work (which you should outsource as soon as you can), planning your future, working with a coach, learning new skills, creating assets like info products, training, and reusable templates, and a variety of other things.
Oh, and don’t forget to keep margin in your business so you have energy to sustain it all and can account for the unforeseens.
Something will always come up.