October 4, 2017
What to do about your whale problem
Do you have a whale client?
You know... one huge client that accounts for the vast majority of your revenue.
The one that you spend pretty much your entire week, every week servicing.
It seems like lots of independent software professionals either:
- Have a whale client, or
- Are scrambling for work.
The trouble with whale clients is that they tend to be bad for your business in the long term. They trigger a vicious cycle:
- You land a whale (and there is much rejoicing!)
- You devote all your time to the whale (and none to your business!)
- You lose your whale (and panic ensues!)
- You scramble to land the next whale that comes along (at a discount because your mortgage is due!)
- You land a whale (and there is much rejoicing!)
Wash rinse repeat.
Welcome to the the hamster wheel. Working so hard to get by that you can’t get ahead.
I have no proof of this, but my gut tells me that the whale problem comes from a combination of factors common to independent software developers:
- A focus on implementation work
- A habit of trading time for money
- A non-existent product ladder
- A distain for marketing and sales
So...
How do you solve the whale problem?
- Refine your value proposition (i.e., I help TARGET MARKET with EXPENSIVE PROBLEM)
- Regularly engage in marketing activity (i.e., outreach, answer bombing, podcast tours, writing, speaking, open source, etc)
- Build a diversified range of offerings that all address the same expensive problem of your chosen target market (i.e., your product ladder)
- Refine your value proposition...
Wash rinse repeat.
Warning: it will probably take a year or two of repeating this process to break your whale dependency. So the best time to start is while you still have one.
Yours,
–J