On Twitter, Anna, guided me to an article about the need for SMEs to balance their client portfolio.

Business analysts have warned that a worrying number of small firms — typically service companies in the business to business sector — are relying on income from one or two main clients.

It is a sad fact that this traps many small businesses and being in the position of running a B2B service company, it’s very tempting to service the 80/20 rule to the extreme.

And, as the article suggests, I too have seen companies go bust pretty quickly after they lose one of the big eggs in their basket. But, what about taking it one step further?

What about creating different business models around (or within) your core services that could supplement your revenue? Not so many as to lose focus on your main income stream, but enough to balance your income.

Balanced Revenue Streams

I’m playing with an idea based around my love of the web, marketing and creative to develop some online properties that will give our business two distinct benefits:

1. Additional potential income from a different area of the money map than our traditional day-to-day work fo B2B, ie. niche consumer markets on a global scale.
2. Probably more important, additional group learning as an organisation. The more we know about e-commerce and Twitter APIs, etc. the more we can develop strategic ideas for our B2B corporate clients.

I can honestly say that some of the most compelling online marketing case studies I have in the past few years are from projects where I have had Carte Blanche, mainly my own personal projects. I’ve had failures (in as much as they haven’t created sustainable revenue) and I have learned from these with ideas that have been mapped onto client work. This has enabled me to have substance to any advice I give.

On a general note, just because a business gets into a ‘routine’ of work, doesn’t mean it should stop being entrepreneurial. One of the most entrepreneurial (intrepreneurial) companies that keeps getting my attention at the moment is IBM. Say no more.