Make sure that you never get to the point that any one computer consulting client has control over you. None of them should have such supreme leverage over you that you couldn't afford to either lose them because of something that's either out of your control or because you want to let them go.

Spread Out Your Risk Among Your Computer Consulting Clients

This is all about diversifying. Think about building your client portfolio like a mutual fund portfolio. It's very similar with marketing where you're using a couple different vehicles to give yourself some balance and lessen the risk a little bit.

If you have one particular computer consulting client that is your bread and butter, meaning that that's the one who's actually paying the bills, what you probably have is a part-time job. You don't have a business. If they say jump, you really have to jump.

The Magic Number of Computer Consulting Clients

For a solo practitioner computer consultant, you don't want to have a couple dozen or a couple hundred clients because it's really hard to give tremendous service to them and be able to be as responsive to them as you need to be.

The ideal number is usually 10 to 20 at the most. It should never be below 8 because then individual clients will have too much leverage on you.

How Do You Find More Ideal Clients?

If you find that you do have one client, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. How unique are their needs? Could you cookie cutter this and could you find other clients that are just like them?

Take a long, hard look at what you've done for this one client. What are their biggest problems that you've solved? What are the biggest problems that you haven't yet solved? Figure out where you're going to find other businesses that are just like them. Then you won't be caught in a losing power struggle.

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