What if one client provides most of your income?
A practical plan for income and time when one relationship dominates.
If one client provides most of your income, work out what would change if the work stopped and how much time you have to build another source. Keep serving the client while you make a plan that fits the business you have today.
How dependent is the business on one client?
Look at what the client has paid over a period that reflects the work you do. Divide that amount by the total cash your business received from clients in the same period. If the work is seasonal or a large project has just ended, compare another period too, rather than assuming the latest month will repeat.
The percentage tells you how much of the cash received from clients came from that relationship. It does not tell you how quickly the client might reduce its work or how much money would be left for you after costs. You need both parts to decide what to do.
What would happen if the work stopped?
Start with what would actually disappear. Some costs may stop with the assignment, such as a subcontractor hired for that client. Other business costs and your commitments outside work may continue. Check the agreement and any notice provisions rather than assuming how long payments will last.
Suppose a hypothetical independent consultant receives 60 out of every 100 units of cash paid by clients from one client. If those payments stopped, 40 units of cash received from other clients would remain over the same period, before any costs. The consultant could then list which costs would also stop, what must still be paid and how long existing resources could cover the difference.
That calculation is not a forecast that the client will leave. It gives the owner a question to answer: what would need to change, and how much time would be available to make that change? If the numbers expose an immediate payment problem, speak with a qualified adviser familiar with your circumstances.
How can you reduce the dependence?
Create room for one realistic source of other work while keeping the promises you have made to the current client. You could follow up on an earlier conversation, speak with an existing contact about a problem you know how to solve, or develop an offer for a different type of customer.
The constraint may be your calendar. If the large client needs most of your available week, finding another customer and delivering the work both require time. Look at what you could reliably offer someone else before promising it. You may need to change the size or timing of a future assignment with the large client, and that change needs to work for them too.
In the consultant's example, the first step might be to reserve time for two conversations about a smaller, clearly defined offer. Those conversations are a way to learn whether the offer is relevant. They will not replace the cash from the large client unless they lead to work that is paid for.
When should you revisit the decision?
Review the mix when the client's agreement or your other commitments change. Record both cash received from each client and the time each assignment takes, so a second client that brings in money but consumes all remaining capacity is visible in the decision.
You may decide the large relationship is worth keeping at its current size for now. Write down what you would do if it became smaller and when you will check the plan again. The aim is to make the trade-off deliberate, not to reach a universal percentage.
The article on choosing clients when you are self-employed looks at the fit of an individual assignment. In business coaching, you can work through the wider choices around customers, income and the time you want to leave for the rest of your life.