[BrentOzar]

Further, think about:

* The length of your expected average contract (days, weeks, months) * The revenue in that contract * How many of those contracts you'll need to sustain the team per year * What percentage of your prospects will sign a contract

So for example, if you need 10 contracts per year to survive, and only 20% of your prospects sign, that means you need at least 50 sales conversations per year.

Marketing is the single biggest problem I see at small consulting shops. They don't get enough leads. Sure, you might believe you can convert a lead into a sale - it's harder than you think - but how are you going to get those leads?

Without leads, you end up groveling for low rate work that you don't really want to do, just to make ends meet. Then, after a year, you've built up a low rate reputation and low rate skills. It's a downhill slide from there to giving up and taking a full time job again. Nothing wrong with full time jobs at all - they're much easier since you don't have to do marketing to find work.

[tootie]

It's compounded by needing so much outbound sales when you have no reputation and such small capacity. I work at a mid-size consulting shop where we are maybe 50/50 outbound and inbound. Inbound sales are like gift-wrapped christmas presents but they require so much effort to get to. Outbound sales is extremely costly.