Everyone wants more customers — it’s every business owner’s main focus and it’s something we cover in some detail in the Selling Your Products and Services module of our Small Business Management Course. But at what point are too many sales or customers too much to handle?
Fair-Weather or Few?
There are countless articles and blog posts on how to grow your customer base and increase your clients, and while this should certainly be a very real focus for every entrepreneur, no one seems to mention whether you would be better off with a few good clients rather than a lot of fair-weather clients.
So the Australian Small Business Centre decided to find out, by asking some ex-students who have now successful started their own virtual assistant businesses, and the overwhelming response was that remote workers, freelancers, and contractors would prefer a small roster of regular clients.
For most people going into business for themselves, they do it because they want a job that is flexible and suits their lifestyle, rather than the inflexible Monday-Friday, 9-5. But they also want to do something they’re passionate about and that they enjoy.
The Benefits of a Smaller Pool of Clients
Having a small roster of clients allows you the freedom to work when it suits you — for mums, it might be between 9am and 3pm when the kids are at school, for example — but it also means that you’re able to devote more of your attention to those clients and do the best job you can.
For the majority of people, job satisfaction is one of the most important aspects of a job — besides remuneration of course! It’s hard to be satisfied with your work if you feel you have to rush through it all the time.
The ideal scenario for the majority of remote workers, contractors and freelancers is to have about two or three good clients who provide them with a good variety of work to keep them busy all the week long.
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If you’re thinking about working from home and becoming a virtual assistant, you should give some thought to how you’re going to find your clients and how regular they will be. The key to any successful business is regular, repeat clientele, and that’s never more important than in the world of remote, contract or freelance workers.
