The Pipeline Principle

Treat your client pipeline like a funnel: leads at the top, proposals in the middle, active projects at the bottom. If the top dries up, the bottom follows 60 days later.

Your job is to keep every opportunity in a named stage: inquiry, proposal, negotiation, scheduled, or closed. A simple tracker with stage and estimated start date shows where future income is thin before your calendar does. The pipeline is not a memory exercise; it is a warning system.