Managing a Client Concentration Issue
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Introduction
A “client concentration” problem refers to having a single related source of work representing more than 25% of your gross profit (fees + markup income). That’s usually the point at which the yellow light should blink on your financial dashboard. That same light should blink red if it moves to 35%, because my research shows that inflexion point to be the median at which one-half of firms fail. In other words, one-half survive the loss of a client that represents ca. 35% and the other one-half of firms fail. Maybe not immediately, but they can usually trace it back to that point if they were not prepared for it. This is meant to prepare you for it.
You either had, have, or will have a gorilla client. Don’t be afraid of it, and don’t say “no” to the work. A problem like this almost always comes from something great you’ve done and you deserve the accolades in the form of even more work. Don’t get a huge head, though, because unusually high spikes in your top line revenue typically stem from a client concentration issue and not unusual and sudden strong new business skills.
