Losing your biggest customer

Q: I was moving to my dream with my own business when -- wham! I lost my largest customer. I'm hurting, both emotionally and financially. What now?

A. I'm convinced that every dream includes a certain amount of nightmare. Owning a business gives you freedom but you have to spend time marketing. To get benefits and a steady income, you have to accept key elements of corporate culture. If entrepreneurship is your dream, you have to remind yourself, "I'm free! I want this!" as you write a check for taxes or health insurance or deal with slumps and hassles.

By way of analogy, think about life as a homeowner. As you write a big check to the electrician or wonder why it's easier to find a cardiologist than a handyman, you keep telling yourself, "But I OWN this place! This is my dream."

Often self-help books are set up to predict a "happily ever after" for those who find their dream. If your dream is a business, it's still a business. Experienced entrepreneurs warn, "Keep marketing all the time -- even when you have all the business you need. It could go away."

If it helps, you can think of the experience as a career winter. Acknowledge and mou
your loss. But to keep going, you have to develop a marketing plan and a financial plan to manage the blips of business ownereship.

We can take a lesson from commissioned salespeople. Back when I was an academic, a colleague and I conducted research on the way salespeople handle loss of a major account. One account might yield as much as a third or a half of the salesperson's income, or the salesperson might have spent several months pursuing an account that went to a competitor.

We interviewed many successful, experienced salespeople, who worked in a big ticket, high-risk, big commission environment. Whether they had sold to an account for several years, or spent many months putting a proposal together, they often came to view customers as friends. And when they lost a sale or an account, they were hurt emotionally as well as financially.

Successful sales reps deal with sales loss by "getting back on the horse." As one woman said, "It's like if you're dumped by a boyfriend, get a date with a terrific guy."

In business, if you're hitting a slump, step up up your marketing. Make calls, arrange speaking engagements, write, work on your website, and intensify your networking activity.

Some coaches also would encourage you to clear clutter, but I leave that to you. When I clear clutter, I just have trouble finding things the next day. I do recommend exercise to loosen your thoughts and give you energy. And I tell all my clients, "Take time to have fun every day."

Bottom line: You are moving to a dream. You may have to adjust your road map -- and if you've never drawn one, thank your departing customer for a wake-up call. Next time you'll be ready and you'll have a plan that calls for diversifying your customer nnn