What Diversifying Your Clientele Means For Safety & Growth

As painful as the 35-day government shutdown and subsequent stalemate between congressional representatives and President Trump was to experience, no one felt the effects more than federal workers and government contractors going without pay. But there is one MAJOR lesson we can take away from all of this.

Government shutdowns have become a lot more common over the years. In fact, 20 shutdowns have occurred since the Ford administration held office in 1976. Most only lasted between 1-5 days, but the most recent battle took an astonishing 35 days to resolve.

Those hit hardest were the federal workers and government contractors who could not afford to miss a paycheck from their sole income stream.

The lesson here is that as a company you MUST diversify your core client base as a way to manage the ever-present risk of non-payment - especially if one of those clients is the U.S. Government.

It’s easy to rest in your comfort zone, providing exceptional services and products for your biggest and historically most reliable clients. But things happen. Internal conflicts or mismanagement of resources could mean you’re the last to be paid what you’re owed. External factors like a stalling economy may require a cutback on expenses.

Always have a strategy for keeping your client pipeline full and diverse so that even when a relationship falters, the entire foundation stays solid.

When I first started my company STAR Enterprises, our approach was to intentionally seek relationships with different hotel brands so that we would not be beholden to the whims of any one particular corporation or decision maker.

Having a variety of clients also improves our credibility and contributes to growth. Clients talk us up to one another and word spreads that STAR has something so wonderful to offer.

So what are you doing to diversify your base? Could it be stretching into different industries? Offering multiple product or services packages? Networking with different companies in the same field?

Let me know in the comment section.

Get it done,

Naomi D.