By "best," I don't necessarily mean the biggest check. I mean the activities, clients, products or services that bring you the most dependable, profitable income without requiring a disproportionate amount of your time, attention and energy.

Over my years in business, I've developed a couple of referral partners who meet my ideal clients earlier in their business life cycle than I would. One often brings me in to collaborate with new clients. I spend part of a day each month helping with an event he runs, learning about innovative technologies that fascinate me, and sometimes we find joint clients. That's a pretty good return on my time, and it's exactly the kind of thing this exercise is designed to help you spot.

Start with the money

Look at the income your business has generated so far this year. Don't just look at the total—look at where it came from. Which clients produced the most revenue? Which products or services? Are there customers who buy repeatedly, or work that produces smaller amounts but adds up to substantial, steady income?

A large client may look terrific until you consider how much extra time you spend servicing that account. A smaller client who works with you regularly pays promptly and rarely requires extra attention may actually be more valuable. Your highest-priced product may not be your most profitable, either. Something less exciting may sell consistently and quietly contribute to your bottom line month after month. Steady can be very profitable.

Now look at how the business came to you

How did those good clients find you? Last month we talked about selective follow-up with new people you meet. We do need new connections, but constantly starting from scratch isn't very efficient, which is why a good referral partner, like the one I mentioned above, can be worth so much more than a stack of new business cards.

Which works better to bring in new income: An email to people who already know you? Or a month of trying to reach strangers through social media?

I wonder about LinkedIn these days. It seems to have shifted toward fancy articles and glossy photos designed to stop the scroll. Its original purpose was helping us meet people through our own connections. Does that mean LinkedIn has no value? No—it means I should ask what value it's producing for my business.

We once produced a print version of this monthly newsletter. One day a woman walked into a weekly lunch I hosted and said, "I've had this newsletter on my bulletin board for a year. Now I'm finally ready to work with you." Some activities take time to pay off.

The mentors I worked with early in my coaching business taught me to always have "something to invite people to" as a follow-up to networking. That weekly lunch worked well for years, until COVID killed it off. Now I host a business conversation online—you're welcome to join us too (details below).

Patterns matter. If you've been doing something regularly for a year or two and can't show a client, referral, sale, or useful relationship that came from it, it's reasonable to ask why you're still doing it. But don't get stuck on the dollars alone.

Visibility, goodwill, and professionalism will build your social capital as you go.

Looking beyond revenue

Not all revenue is equal. Two clients may each bring you $10,000 and be vastly different for your business. One pays on time, respects your expertise, is pleasant to work with, and refers other good clients. The other negotiates every invoice and causes you to spend hours doing work you never intended to include. Same revenue, very different value.

So, consider profitability, but also predictability and effort. Which customers return? Which products have healthy margins? Which work leads naturally to more good work? What creates steady income? And, just as importantly, what part of your business do you really love to do?

Then do something with what you learn

This exercise isn't about creating another spreadsheet to admire—it's about making choices. If your best clients come from referrals, cultivate those relationships. If one service is profitable and easy to deliver, promote it. If repeat customers provide your steadiest income, encourage more of them to return. And if something takes hours but produces little, it may deserve less of your time, or none.

We, small business owners, tend to add things: another marketing tactic, product, networking group, offer. Sometimes growth really does come from adding. But sometimes the better opportunity is sitting in the business you already have.

How can you do more of what is already working? The answer may make your business not only more profitable, but simpler

and more fun to run.

Lorette Pruden has helped hundreds of small business owners, sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders grow their businesses and manage that growth since 2000. She specializes in the Formerly Corporate—so many small business owners who’ve worked with her come from a corporate background that she finally wrote the book on it.

Here's the first thing to remember: it's not all about you.

When someone doesn't respond, it's tempting to spiral into a story about what you did wrong. Was your email too pushy? Not compelling enough? Did you come across as desperate? But the truth is, you have almost no visibility into what's happening on the other end. They might be buried in deadlines, dealing with a family emergency, going through a reorganization at work, or simply someone who lets email pile up for weeks at a time. Their silence is a reflection of their bandwidth and priorities in that moment — not a verdict on your worth or your pitch.

This reframe matters because it protects you from two bad outcomes: taking rejection personally, and over-correcting by following up too aggressively in an attempt to "fix" something that was never broken in the first place.

Which brings us to the second, more actionable point: if you want follow-up to actually work, you have to be selective. Selective in where you go — are there likely to be people there you actually want to meet? And in who to follow up with?

Many networkers operate on a randomized model — collect as many contacts as possible, then follow up with everyone, hoping some percentage sticks. I wore myself out early in my networking career with this, and not much came of it. Spending limited follow-up energy on people I didn't actually care about stretched me too thin to nurture the relationships that might matter.

Instead, try this: after any networking event, pick two or three people — not twenty — who you genuinely want to know better. People whose work excites you, whose perspective you value, or who you sense could become a real collaborator or friend. Then put real thought into following up with them specifically.

Once I figured this out, I hit on the quiet magic of this approach: when you are intentional, people can feel your real enthusiasm. A follow-up that says "I've been thinking about what you said about X" lands very differently than a generic "great meeting you." And when your follow-up is thoughtful, specific, and genuinely tailored to that person, they're far more likely to feel similarly and reciprocate.

Selective follow-up isn't about doing less networking — it's about doing networking that actually works. Fewer, better relationships beat a long list of cold contacts every time. So the next time you leave an event with a stack of business cards, resist the urge to follow up with all of them. Choose the two or three who genuinely intrigued you, and give them your full attention.

Now it may not click right away, and here is where consistency really pays off. If you have a follow-up plan or sequence, you'll stay top of mind and not aggravate or dismiss the new contacts you have chosen to develop.

Remember, this is a two-way street. If someone reaches out to you first — or writes back after your follow-up — be prompt and genuine in your response. Nothing undoes the goodwill you've built faster than becoming what my new contact Christopher G. aptly calls a "professional ghoster."

Simple, consistent and patient.

Speaking of patient and deliberate — I want to show you what that looks like when you give it years, not weeks.

I volunteer with a local non-profit that maintains a beautiful antebellum house here in New Jersey, and our garden team has spent several years restoring one of the side gardens. We didn't start by planting everything we liked. First, we had to see what was already there. Then came the harder work: deciding what to remove, what to keep, and — only at the end — what few things to add. Sound familiar?

Like your contact list after a networking event, a garden rewards the person who's willing to do more weeding than planting. You can't nurture everything, so you choose. And what you choose, you tend to consistently, season after season, without expecting bloom on your timeline.

Right now, in late July, this garden is stunning — proof that simplicity, consistency, and patience compound into something far richer than a scattershot planting ever could. I'll save the full story for another issue, but here's a peek:

Lorette Pruden has helped hundreds of small business owners, sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and community leaders grow their businesses and manage that growth since 2000. She specializes in the Formerly Corporate—so many small business owners who’ve worked with her come from a corporate background that she finally wrote the book on it.