| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: How many different clients did you invoice last month? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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It's one of the most boring things I know. I have a client I haven't invoiced for six months, but I just cannot get myself to bring together all the details for an invoice (lost the details together with my computer at the time a few months ago; the client sent their records but I still need to go through it some time).
[Edited at 2008-11-04 05:55]
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Which is quite a normal figure for me. As these 16 clients meant writing out 23 invoices, that is a bit too much accounting work for my liking but I am not really complaining although I sometimes wish there would be more bigger jobs rather and therefore less time spending on writing those invoices.
| | | | | I think it does matter | Nov 4, 2008 |
neilmac wrote:
All this is probably not very interesting, but I think it goes to show that it doesn't matter the number of clients you have, what is important is the amount of work you get from them.
Not directed at you personally Neil, you're obviously happy with the way things are, are able to judge it better from within and it's your prerogative to run your business how you see fit anyhow - however putting all your eggs in too few baskets can be risky.
Personally, I don't allow any one client to make up more than 15% of my monthly income and have others that I keep active and can move into the 'inner circle' should one of the 'inner circle' default.
If I only had two or three clients and one defaulted, I'd be left with a massive void. So, whilst it's tempting to take everything my best clients ('inner circle') offer, I do force myself to limit things and even out the risk.
Perhaps it's a result of more than a decade dealing exclusively, as a lawyer, with bankrupticies and liquidations, but I've seen too many professionals/businesses run into problems because they were just too dependent on certain clients. Nothing to do with their ability or services, just not willing enough to break out of their comfort zone until it was too late.
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which is more or less the number of clients we invoice every month. We also always have a whole lot of tiny projects. It demands a lot of administrative tasks of course. But in the long run it is not too inconvenient to have a lot of smaller invoices out there rather than a few bigger ones with huge amounts.
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it probably depends on whether or not you have permanent clients, in my case I work 2 permanent clients that I get most of my assignents from
| | | | Textklick 
Local time: 09:53
German to English
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In memoriam | Lies, damned lies and statistics | Nov 4, 2008 |
Miranda Joubioux wrote:
I'm curious to know what made you ask the question.
I don't understand the point of this poll.
For a start it can vary a lot from month to month and it may also vary depending on your own situation, location, etc.
Hi Miranda,
Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't there a poll where the results suggested that generally most people are booked most of the time?
If that were indeed correct, this poll would suggest two things:
1. Almost half of us have a 'concentrated' client base, and probably bill monthly? Sensible!
2. The demand/supply ratio is generally in our favour. Healthy!
[Edited at 2008-11-04 10:27]
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ariffo wrote:
Sophie, does your surprise stem from the fact that 2-4 clients doesn't seem to be a very diversified client portfolio and seems perhaps a bit risky? (I'm not sure I'm putting it right, I hope you get the idea behind my somewhat-mangled English). If so, I have to agree that it does seem a little tight (I mean, if one of them fails, the situation could become rather tricky). You got my point, ariffo. So here, I don't quite agree with neilmac. Of course it is great if you have many customers AND they send you lots of work. But the number of customers does matter to me. For security reasons, as explained by colleagues. It's true that clients can fail (did not happen to me yet, lucky me!) and they can also stop sending you work (definitely or for a while), or send you less work, not necessarily because they are unhappy with your work, but just bvecause they don't have any work in your pair/specialty field at the moment. So I find it better to have a customer portfolio as wide as possible, and that's why I never refuse inquiries from potential new customers, although I am overbusy. Who knows what can happen...
| | | | lillkakan
Local time: 10:53
English to Swedish
More than ten this time, becaue I had some invoices I've been 'building up' since July....
I can't say how absolutely thrilled I am to hear that I'm not the only who does that, or invoice irregularly for that matter. I have felt completely incompetent when I don't manage to send all my invoices for one month out on the 1st of the following month, but with increasing workload it's just impossible sometimes. It's so nice to hear I'm not the only one....
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