I think everyone should do more things that DON’T have an immediate and measurable ROI.

It’s sometimes tempting to look at everything as a line in a P&L – a cost in time, money, or opportunity that we need to have a measurable return from. Our time on LinkedIn gets measured in network growth, our attendance at events in the leads we uncover, the coffee chats we have in whether they move someone down our pipeline. It seems logical, particularly when times are tough, but I remain solidly unconvinced.

My approach has always been to give more and take less. I do this in my current business, I frequently give free support to those who need it, serve on the board of a charity, pass on leads and referrals freely and try to give value in some form whenever I attend an event. I try to do it on LinkedIn too, sharing thinking and observations rather than plugging my services (although scrolling through my recent posts now, I think I would file most under “nonsense” – sorry about that)

This isn’t just “exited founder privilege” either. We had a similar approach in the agency I ran. We qualified out 95% of our inbound enquiries, but tried to leave all of those outside of our target profile with value and a positive experience. We even produced a free guide aimed entirely at those we had no intention of doing business with, helping them grow to the point where we might. The same approach was the foundation of our marketing too. It was through openly sharing useful information that competitors treated as trade secrets that we built a name in a niche dominated by larger players.

“Give, not take.”

If you want to feel justified in working more like this, call it Brand Building. Being known for being helpful and having a chance to demonstrate your capabilities is never a bad thing. Neither is being liked. People are far more likely to do business with helpful experts they already like whether you can measure what led to that or not.

The power of this approach really hit home once at an event that Google hosted to introduce partners like us to potential clients. Whilst our peers were thrusting their hands at prospects to introduce themselves, I had multiple people recognise me from my profile picture and thank me for help or information we had provided online.

So there is return, whether we measure it or not. Importantly though, it’s just a nicer way to work. Seeing everything in business as purely transactional is  soulless and exhausting. When you run a small business, your passion and energy for it will be one of the biggest drivers of success. It’s difficult to maintain that when you see every part of the business as a transactional grind.

In the end, this approach may not always have an immediate, measurable ROI. But it builds something far more valuable in the long run: trust, reputation, and genuine connections. These are the intangible assets that often lead to the most significant opportunities and successes in business and life.

And here is the twist: At a time when many agencies are finding business difficult, I’m frequently asked about the patterns I see in those doing well. Whilst nothing is fool proof, I definitely see parallels between those businesses taking a less transactional view and those doing well and reporting that “leads just always seem to come in”.   Take that, Bean Counters.