I’ve been hearing lately from a lot of entrepreneurs who describe themselves as “crazy-busy.” As in, “I’m not sleeping. I’m crazy busy.” or “I’m going in a hundred different directions at once. I’m crazy busy.”

While I agree that yes, of course, sometimes you need to be “crazy-busy”- but is it an occasional thing? or an ongoing lifestyle choice?

I ask because I’ve been working with a few entrepreneurs in my coaching program, and we’ve been working- A LOT- on the idea of focusing and drilling down to essentials. It’s not been easy (for me or for them!) because, generally, entrepreneurs love novelty, starting, and the energy of beginnings. My clients also tend to be well-read and they like to learn, so they are often learning a lot of new things; sometimes at the expense of implementing anything.

So you may have your own ways that focus creates money, but here are three ways I remember and try to live by:

Focused offerings create more money.

This means that when you offer products or services, the more focused and targeted they are, the easier they are to sell. You’ll find it easier to connect with the right audience when you have a focused and relevant message. Also, focused offerings generally make it easier to describe results- and they can reduce scope creep in the course of your work with a client. These are just a few of the many good reasons to focus your offerings.

Focused time creates more money.

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re often multitasking- working on multiple projects at any one time. The research shows that most multitaskers believe they are better at multitasking than they really are, and the people who would be good at multi-tasking actually don’t do it. You can see this in your business, most likely- if you have a lot of unfinished projects; especially ones related to increasing your profitability; doesn’t it make sense that focused time to finish would create more money?

Focused time off creates profitable ideas.

Another area that many of my clients need support in is the area of creating a work schedule. Many of them, left to themselves, would work 12-15 hours a day. In some stages of business, this is necessary. It’s not, however, sustainable or desirable if you also want to have a life. There are some business coaches who suggest that work-life balance is a myth. I tend to agree. It’s more difficult to balance life and work all the time. However, in the overall arc of your life, you do need some time to unhook from work- time to relax and play. I’ve seen this in my own business- whenever I take some time off to play and relax; I get new ideas which are worth implementing.

There are probably many more ways that focus and profits go together. If you’d want to share any examples from your own experience, I’d love to hear them!