Putting all of your eggs in one basket, they’re liable to get…………….crushed. It’s an old saying but a very valuable one. Whether you’re in business for yourself or looking for a new direction in your career, this expression definitely holds true.
Is it better to have one large customer for your business or many small customers? The easy answer is to have just one big one, and cater to their every need. Give them 110%, maybe 120%. I’ll make them happy and in return their business will prosper as will mine. Not always the case, is it?
If you allow for any one business to account for a significant percentage of your own revenue (say, 10, 15, 20% or greater) and you lose them, it will have a great impact on your business. But if you’re doing such a great job servicing them, how can this happen? It happens because there are many other factors affecting their business – for instance, perhaps their vendors stop paying them, the overall economic climate worsens, a natural disaster occurs, changes in their people resources, illnesses, competition, new technology, get the idea? The list can become long.
But if you diversify and have many customers in your base, and you lose one or two every now and then, it won’t have such an impact on you. This is an error that many entrepreneurs, especially new ones make. It happened to Lonnie and Rhoda . The couple had a home-based business and invested a great deal in inventory, relied heavily on a few clients and when their biggest one stopped paying them, they were soon forced to shut down their business, sell their home, downsize and take regular jobs again.
What about if you’re thinking of a new direction in your career or decide it’s time to get a new job? Can you use the same principles – absolutely! It’s a numbers game. Send out resumes to three organizations that you’d really like to work for and things don’t pan out with any of them, where are you? But if you increase your search and create more options for yourself, you have a greater chance of success.
Sell a little bit to a lot of customers and your business will prosper.