That’s easy: big clients = big control over you.

Typically, big clients know they are and will throw their weight around. Also, you will usually find that big clients are clients that are too big to loose.

… A very bad scenario because that amplifies my first point.

Stefan

With regards to having a few large clients; I’m going to hold my ground on that one. I’ve personally seen it myself and with my friend’s business how having big clients is really bad news.

Stefan

However, on the general debate over going for volume over fewer larger, quality clients I have to differ and I have to say im pleased a lot of people disagree with the advice “It is always better to have 20 small clients than 5 big clients!!” – let me give my reasons why the reverse should be true.

1/. If you had 20 clients (15 small and 5 big) the best thing you could prob do is drop the 15 and focus on the 5 big clients if they are trustworthy and pay well. Then focus on gaining more quality clients. This is due to the 80/20 rule (80% profit from 20% of clients) I noticed Jonathon Hinshaw beat me to this point tho! – Must be reading the same business books.. Brian Tracy?!
2/. The problem with going cheap is these people really do call you all the time and expect small “freebies”. When a big client who pays you well does this at least your getting well compensated for this and can factor it into your pricing. Using themes is fine as long as you make it really clear what the boundaries are in terms of how long you will spend on it, if you don’t you will have problems.
3/. Chances are the cheap clients are the ones who are a pain in the bum, so would it really be so bad to lose them?
4/. Going cheap devalues your profession.

Otherwise, great advice!

You could buy leads or adds on popular sites. But the best way to go is word of mouth. The first clients are the hardest to get. So you may want to do a free job or two just to get your name out there.

Stefan

First, I don’t believe that now is the time to go cheap. You should never go cheap. Instead, I rather like the part where you mention to add more features using PHP etc. Currently we are adding more tools and more CMS to our clients sites and letting them know this will save them money in the long run when it comes to keeping their website up to date. – And we do charge for training them! OUR TIME IS WORTH SOMETHING, ALL THE TIME. – AND YOURS IS TOO!

Second, I believe you should always do Quality, instead of Quantity. The old saying is true “20% of your clients will be in charge of 80% of your income” – So you should focus on those clients, and grow those relationships. Find out who they know and if they could recommend you to their peers.

Personally, my firm has not lowered prices, quality, or even workload. We’re actually growing… How? I’m glad you asked…. We’ve set up a Partner Network and started to look for alternate markets to work with and grow our client base. So far, it’s been awesome. We’ve actually been very choosy and very effective!

In closing, keep doing quality, differentiate yourself, offer something more that doesn’t take a lot of extra work (Google annalytics installed for free etc), and most importantly – learn, learn learn. Don’t ever stop and think that you’re good.

Good luck, and keep building sites!

Great short term and mid-term goals listed.

That, I will have to leave to you to decide.

In the end, you need to evaluate the state of your business and make changes to your business model … if need be. I was just offering a strategy you could use if business really started to drop off.

Stefan