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🔄 Feast. Famine. Repeat.
Published 2 months ago • 4 min read
Break the cycle before it breaks your margins.
Hey there Reader the game-changer.
Feast. Famine. Panic. Pitch. Repeat.
It’s the cycle we fall into without realizing it.
Slammed with work, revenue’s up, you feel unstoppable… so you stop prospecting as you’re too busy working and eating lobster. 🦞
Then the big project ends. Suddenly the pipeline’s empty and you’re in scramble mode. Pitch decks, late nights, big promises, hoping the next client lands.
If it does, the whole thing starts again.
It’s exhausting. It’s expensive and eventually, it breaks something - margins, teams, sometimes the founder!
Peter Drucker says “Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”
If you want off the rollercoaster, the shift starts now, not “when things calm down.”
We’ll talk more about how to break the cycle below. 👇
Without further ado, here’s what I’ve got for you this month:
Breaking the Feast/Famine Cycle
Hot Takes
Top Articles For You This Month
Tech To Help You
as·TER·o·pre·NEUR (noun) A growth-focused founder who drives profitability by mastering what they do best and delegating the rest to trusted experts.
🔁 Breaking the Feast/Famine Cycle
Here’s the thing about the feast/famine cycle: it’s not a revenue problem, it’s a rhythm problem.
When work is pouring in, you get so deep in delivery that you stop feeding the pipeline. Then delivery ends, and the scramble begins. Every pitch feels like life or death, and you’re making big promises from a place of panic instead of strategy.
The way out is through a different operating system. Here’s what I walk clients through:
1. Prospect even when you’re slammed Busy isn’t a reason to stop selling. It’s the exact time to keep selling, because the seeds you sow now will mature when your current work wraps up. Block time every week for outreach or partner conversations, non-negotiable.
2. Know your margins job by job Gut feel isn’t a strategy. I’ve seen “great” projects actually lose money once the numbers were clear. When you track profitability at the job level, you start making better calls on what to pursue, what to price higher, and what to politely decline.
3. Build revenue insurance Retainers, IP, seasonal events, maintenance contracts, whatever fits your model. The goal is to have baseline income that covers core overhead, so every big project is pure upside, not a lifeline.
4. Use systems built for your business You’re not a manufacturer from 1987, so why run your finances like one? Get reporting that gives you real-time insight into pipeline, margins, and cash flow and shows problems before they land on your desk.
One agency I worked with was stuck in the exact same feast/famine cycle. We added a modest retainer offer for past clients, built job-level profitability tracking, and set a “two hours a week” sales rule. Six months later, they’d stabilized cash flow and doubled their win rate on new pitches.
Breaking the cycle isn’t about working harder. It’s about designing a business that’s steady enough to make bold moves.
This forecast has helped hundreds of founders move from guessing to knowing. It can do the same for you.
🧠 Top Articles
These are the three reads I’d put in front of any founder trying to grow smarter, not just bigger. Two are mine — one’s a must-read no matter what you’re building.
Ever wonder why a “simple” hire feels like a million-dollar gamble? Or why you keep second-guessing your prices even when revenue is healthy?
This article walks through how to connect hiring, pricing, and profits so they work together instead of pulling you in three directions. It’s a scarcity-to-abundance playbook that’s a lot easier to run than most founders think.
Award-winning work and empty bank accounts are more common than you think in the creative world. This article lays out the 3-pillar framework we use to help agencies kill the feast-or-famine cycle, tighten margins, and finally have a financial strategy that matches their creative talent.
✔️ You don’t need a niche, you need a point of view Most creators are trapped as content factories—repeatable, step‑by‑step influencers who AI can easily replace. Dan Koe argues that instead of narrowing into a niche, you should lean into your unique point of view, because followers don’t connect with information—they connect with people who say something they can’t get anywhere else.
⚙️ Tech To Help You
Not every tool is worth the learning curve. These are ones we’ve used or seen work in the wild that actually earn their keep:
Wispr Flow - I use this to type with my voice saving hours per day.
Ramp - Our top credit card and bill pay platform. $500 bonus.
I hope something here helps you make a sharper call this week, or at least takes a decision off your plate. If something here sparked a question, just reply or reach out on social. I always enjoy hearing from awesome founders.
Your Friend and Fan,
P.S. – If you’re under $2M/year, you’re probably not ready for CFO-level support just yet. But if you’re past that point and still relying on instinct over strategy, it’s time for a different kind of help. Click here to explore working with us. No pressure, just honest advice. First come, first serve.
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Check out our free, monthly, numbers-centric newsletter that gives Founders rare and actionable tips along with three pieces of hand-selected content to help you protect and grow yourself and your business. Find out what it means to be an Asteropreneur!
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