I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me early in my freelancing career:

I had several clients, most of them were short term gigs (less than a month’s worth of work) and only one or two were longer than six months’ worth of work. And then I got a call. A friend of a friend of a friend worked at a big company (read: HUGE company) and needed me to do some work. I dropped almost everything to take on that new client. We had a successful run for 3 years and I made a lot of money.

But times change. Needs change. And, after a while, the company’s needs changed and they no longer needed my services to the same degree that they did. Before long I found myself without that one client, but since they were about 90% of my income, I found myself with barely any work!

I had to scramble to catch up. I had to get really aggressive to get new business again. I had to dust off old systems and ideas and techniques to find new work. I got back on top of my game but I learned a harsh less and now I’m hoping to share it with you before you make the same mistake.

There is something attractive about working with a big, long-term client. You don’t have to spend as much time marketing so you make more money because you can spend more hours on your work. But if their needs ever change, you’re up a certain river and you don’t have an oar to propel your boat.

So, think of your clients as a mix in a quadrant:

• On the one axis you have big clients and you have little clients.
• And, on the other axis you have short terms clients and you have long term clients.

So, you’ll have some big clients that are short term and some that are long term, and you’ll have little clients that are short term and some that are long term. Sometimes you’ll have more of one than another but, in general, try to keep a good mix of these clients at all times for maximum business stability.

You might also find that some of your short term clients turn into long term clients, and some of your small clients become big clients. That’s fine. Replace them as they evolve and make sure that you are always trying to grow each quadrant of business.

And, you might find that some clients are more profitable than others. That’s fine. But stick with this plan because, in the long run, you’re giving up a bit of profit today in order to ensure a more stable cash flow in the future.

The temptation is there for you to reduce your marketing and work with a few long term clients. I get that; I still face that temptation daily. But you need to fight it and embrace a more balanced approach to your customer mix.