“I need more paying clients,” she said.

“Work on your network of referral sources,” I responded.

“I don’t have time,” she countered.

This is a conversation I have almost daily.

“Breathe,” I tell myself. Inhale, exhale, relax.

Then we start talking about the solution.

She’s quick to understand my logic: if she’s busy and yet still needs work, then she’s not charging enough. She explains that if she charges more, she won’t get the work and she’ll make even less.

She’s right. If she charges more, she won’t get the work. She’ll make a little less—for a brief period. But if she keeps doing what she’s doing, she’ll never make more. She needs free time to make more money.

She needs to charge more now. Some work will go elsewhere, but the work she keeps will largely make up for the losses. Plus, and this is the key point, she will now have the time to do the work to generate more of the work she needs at the higher price.

Eventually, following this path, she’ll reach a point where she is again too busy to build her network of referral sources. Her time will be sold out at the higher rate.

The solution at that point?

Usually the best course of action is to recycle the old plan: raise the price, lose some of the work, and create more time to build the network. It’s not a time problem, it’s a price problem.