In the “few big customers or lots of smaller customers” debate, I’ve done both. I can’t say that one is clearly better than the other. It also depends a lot on the product/service you are providing and the amount of time involved. Ideally, I sell a program and that’s the end of it. Some customers require a lot of “hand holding”. Too much of that and the time involved becomes a problem. On the other hand, it is a great way to get feedback to make improvements. The key is to listen to your customers – and then do something with it.

I guess it all depends on what you’re comfortable with. Clients come and go for a bunch of different reasons that may have nothing to do with the quality of your work. So while it may be less of a hassle to deal with three big clients than (in my case) 25 smaller ones, if you lose one of your three, that’s potentially one-third of your income down the drain until you can replace them. If I lose one of my 25, however, I hardly notice it, and I regularly get requests from new clients anyway.

Different strokes, I guess, but I imagine that the size of your client base will also vary depending on the nature of your business. I’m a translator, but I could see how, say, a voice-recognition software consultant might be more likely to serve fewer clients but with bigger contracts.

I have found that for the long-term health of your business, it’s rarely worth taking on big jobs with short lead times that prevent you from accommodating your other clients (or potential clients) for an extended period. I made that mistake once and it took my business 6 months to recover.

If this is explained properly, most clients who use the services of a freelancer will understand that there are certain limitations to doing so. The upshot of all this is that by making sure your clients know they can’t have your exclusive attention, at least not for extended periods of time, it’s easier to maintain a diversified client base and not rely on that one major client so much. Yes, you may lose out on some of the big, lucrative rush jobs, but to be honest, the short term gain is rarely worth it to either your bottom line or your sanity the long run.

Email newsletters are underrated. Marketing through blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter etc requires recipients to signup. The hassle of that extra step reduces your reach. With an eNewsletter, you save clients/prospects time and effort by subscribing them yourself. (This assumes you have their permission.)