Computer Consulting: Balancing Your Portfolio

Do you have a balanced portfolio in your computer consulting business? Target 70% of your businesses in the small business state.

Keep a small amount of your business dealing with home networks and the consumer side and then have 5-15% of your business with much larger businesses. This setup works for many computer consulting professionals but it all depends upon where you want to take your business.

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Make sure that no single one of these clients accounts for more than 10 percent of your computer consulting revenue. If you get most of your money from one source and then lose that client because they were acquired, sold, or had a change in management, you stand to lose a lot of revenue. It is very difficult to bounce back from something like that.

Fire Your Bad Clients

As crazy as it seems, you may also choose to fire one of your clients. Every once in awhile you’re going to run into some real problem clients that aren’t worth all the money in the world.

These clients will drive your computer consulting staff nuts to the point that they’re taking sick days and everyone’s dreading going out to see them. At some point you'll decide to cut them loose. If they make up too much of your current base, you'll have a hard time firing them.

Reasons to Fire Clients

You may also have some clients that aren’t meeting your monthly revenue goals and aren’t paying on time or aren’t meeting their computer consulting contract commitments. You really need to have the luxury of cutting one or two of them loose each year without it taking a huge chunk out of your revenue.

Lots of management consultant gurus say that you should fire your bottom 20 percent of your customer list every year. You may not need to be that precise, but you are going to find some people that have ridiculous, unrealistic demands and you should be prepared to fire them.

Make Room for Your Ideal Clients

Don't tolerate computer consulting customers that are verbally abusive, harrass you, and cause you too much stress. If you have enough other clients that are the kind you want to work with, it will be easier for you to replace the problem client rather than reform him.

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