One of the things that often annoys me when I'm reading marketing tips from other “experts” is the repeated insistence that as a business owner you should focus most of your time on marketing. 

Of course, marketing is vital. Without new customers, your business soon struggles.

But taking all your time? That's just not viable for solo professionals and small firms. Your number one priority is actually working with clients.

These experts seem so self-unaware that they don't realise their obsessive focus on marketing is a personal preference. They love marketing, so they want to maximise their time doing it.

For the rest of us who want to spend as much time as we can on client work, marketing is a vital necessity. Something we need to be good at.

But it's something we need to be efficient with. Something we need to get great results with, but in an 80:20 way. 

We need to focus on a small number of strategies that get great results for us, but that don't take up every waking hour.

I've stopped listening to gurus who just aren't like me. Their advice is well-meaning, but it doesn't work for me.