Bouncing Back After A Dropped Contract
You can find articles all day long about growing or running a business. How often have you heard about the pains of a dropped contract? People may not like talking about it, but it does happen. And it is hard.
We have all seen those movies with an advertising agency that lost a contract because they became too complacent and couldn't think of something original. Then, when you least expect it, a rogue employee comes along and saves the contract for the company. Everyone celebrates, the company avoids losing millions of dollars, and the employee is promoted. The hero of the story gets a raise, paid time, commission, or whatever they request when they leverage their success to play hardball with the company.
Reality does not work like that. Especially for little startups like you and I. Losing a contract can hurt the bottom line if you put all your eggs in one basket. Heck, it can hurt even if you did diversify - if the contract was large enough.
I've been there. I've lost my bread and butter contract while still in the growth process. I didn't find more clients before the large contract came to an end, and with it, my base income walked off too.
Post-contract growing pains are the worst.
Sometimes it is unavoidable. However, if you do the work then you can avoid most cases of income loss.
Don't get me wrong, some things are unavoidable. Just ask the small business in downtown America during the peak of Covid shutdowns. They lost a lot of money during that time, and some shops never reopened. As a matter of fact, I know of my fair share of business fronts that never came back in my community alone.
Sounds bad, so how do you avoid this disaster?
Restaurants started delivery and pick up. Storefronts started selling their wares online. You just need to diversify your skills. I am a freelancer. I extend my services into various categories that all fit under that title. I can handle customer contacts for one client and write web copy for another. Pulling in various customers in different areas has helped me in the past. I am not relying on one, do it all, set of clients. Rather, helping multiple smaller client companies has saved me many times when one would drop out for any reason.
Our environments evolve regularly.
You must evolve with your market and world conditions to remain successful. Remaining static will only create a flash-in-the-pan startup.
Are you going to start complaining about AI now, writer lady?
Actually, no. However, it is a great example of evolving your offerings. Right now there are companies paying people like us to help train their AI. It isn't removing opportunities, it is creating new ones. After all, AI is taught by people like you and me.
Evolve and diversify if you want to keep your business rolling. If you do, potholes in your business won't become Mt. Everest to overcome.