Let’s talk about two of your clients

You have two clients – let’s call them “Mary” and “John”.

    Mary buys more from you than John.  Is Mary the better client?

    What if you earn a higher margin off your work with John?  Might that put him ahead?

    What though if John is extremely slow to pay you while Mary pays you in advance.  Does that put Mary in the lead?

    But then again, what if John’s an excellent referral source for you while Mary has never referred anyone to you?

    On the other hand though, what if you enjoy the work with Mary and you detest working with John?

    Ok – I’ll stop now. 

    Remember the Pareto Principle?  That you get 80% of the outputs from 20% of the inputs?

    Apply it now to clients:

    – You get a majority of your profits from a minority of your clients.

    – You get a majority of your grief from a minority of your clients.

    – You get a majority of your referrals from a minority of your clients.

    Etc.

    Your takeaway: rank your clients, periodically. 

    Why?

    – So you can know who to get rid of or, at least, to ignore.

    – So you can know which clients are most deserving of your limited time.

    – So you can ask yourself where you got the best clients from and see if you can go fish in that pond again.

    PS:  If you want to receive content like this blog in my twice-weekly email, sign up here and you’ll also get my ebook – “Get Off The Hamster Wheel: The Smart Small Business Owner’s Productivity Bible“.  You’ll read it in less than 15 minutes.  And, if you think you don’t have 15 minutes, then you really need to read it.