| Often for a small business to take the next step | | | | soon as you can. This can be really true if the |
| it can seem necessary to land that one big client. | | | | business you do with them varies. Say you have |
| Some sort of whopper client. If that does happen | | | | a service oriented business. Your big client may |
| for you great. But have you ever considered | | | | account for over 25% of your business during |
| what would happen to your business if you were | | | | the course of a year. But what if there are slow |
| to lose that client? Just as they helped your | | | | months. What exactly are your employees going |
| company make that great leap forward they | | | | to be doing to earn their pay? |
| could also destroy your business if they were to | | | | One big client can throw a lot of different things |
| leave you. That's why it is so important to keep a | | | | off for you. You need balance in your business. |
| diverse clientele. | | | | That's why the 10% rule exists. Yes you want |
| The old axiom "never put all of your eggs in one | | | | large customers but they still should not represent |
| basket" can definately apply in this situation. It's | | | | more than 10% of your overall sales. But neither |
| preferable in fact that no one customer | | | | do your smaller customers need to reach that |
| represents more than 10% of your annual sales. | | | | figure either. You can have ten different clients |
| Because if something were to happen to them | | | | each representing 1%. That side does not really |
| your business is going to be the one suffering. It | | | | matter. All that matters is how big are the big |
| could even be the result of something that has | | | | players. The better your sales spread is the more |
| nothing to do with you. Maybe they went | | | | protection your business has for the unforeseen. |
| bankrupt! But it might be they switched vendors. | | | | So when working to build your business please |
| The reason doesn't really matter it's the | | | | keep in mind the 10% rule. Doing so can save you |
| consequences that do. | | | | from some unfortunate consequences that you |
| So if you do land the big fish then you need to | | | | just might be on the receiving end of but had |
| take advantage of it rather quickly. Preferably by | | | | nothing to do with. It would be unfortunate if your |
| landing more clients. Yes you could become | | | | business were to suffer or even fail because of |
| overloaded with business. But you need to reduce | | | | the financial ramifications that can be caused by |
| your reliance on that client as much as possible as | | | | the loss of a large customer. |