Most of the RainMakers that I know own the business. They all work 60+ hours every week. They’re goal driven. They typically have a plan. Work a schedule. Establish priorities.

In my opinion, the #1 priority of a RainMaker is to make rain. Bring in business. Not to be billable. Not to administrate (is that right?). Not to deal with vendors, computer problems, solicitors, anything. All of these functions are important. All must be done. But the #1 priority is to bring in business.

Now, as the rainmaker and as the owner, don’t you have the authority to determine what should be done with regard to building your business? You get to put what’s important on your schedule and you get to adjust when you think it’s appropriate.

So, why would a rainmaker blow off a non-repeating networking event simply because a hard to reach prospect returns your call and says let’s meet tonight. If networking is not part of your plan, don’t put it on your schedule. If it is part of your plan, why blow it off? You don’t have to tell the prospect that you’re networking. Just tell him that you can’t meet with him tonight. Do you want to adopt the posture that your prospect’s time is more important than your own? Isn’t your business plan, your business growth more important than any individual prospect? If the prospect can’t find another time to meet with you, can it be that important? If you’re gonna change your plan every time a prospect asks you to, why make a plan at all?

OK! Enough! Bottom line! You’re the boss. You get to say what’s important. If you agree that your plan includes 15 billable hours, 15 administrative hours, 50 prospecting calls, 3 meetings with prospects, etc., then that’s what you schedule. If you schedule your networking event for a particular time and something else wants to be scheduled at that time, should you move it if you can’t replace the event?