I hear this all the time – “I don’t have time to do marketing.” I went to a social networking seminar for lawyers recently and heard objection after objection about not being able to find the time to use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And these comments were from people that had taken time out of their day to come to a marketing seminar.

Why did they come to the seminar?

I get the same feedback from lawyers paying me for consulting work. They’ve come to me to build their practice and they sit here and explain why they don’t have time to build their practices. Why do they want to learn about marketing if they’re already so busy?

Here’s why – they aren’t making the money they want to make. They’re “busy” doing poorly compensated work. Their either not charging enough or they aren’t getting paid for the work their doing.

The solution? Stop doing work for which you aren’t getting paid. Free up that time and start using it for marketing. Use the marketing activities to generate work that pays a higher rate.

This is basic supply and demand. If you have more work than you need at a low price then raise the price. The volume of work will be reduced, but your revenues will remain unchanged. You’ve got to leave time, always, for working “on” the business rather than “in” the business. Marketing time needs to be a permanent part of your day, week, month – forever. If marketing time isn’t part of your schedule your business will stagnate. And you’ll be one of those lawyers that can’t find the time to do the marketing.