What to do when you lose half your clients in a few weeks

Most of us have, at some point, lost close to half of our business in a single month. For a fractional or consultant, that means half your clients, just gone. Usually it isn't even because of something you did.

Here's the order I would work through it in.

First, count your blessings. You lost half your clients, which means you still have half. I know that sounds harsh, but when someone with a regular full time job loses it, they lose all of it. You're still half busy.

Second, revisit the clients you have. Make sure they're happy. Ask whether there's something else you should be doing for them that you aren't, something you could charge for. Even if there isn't, make sure they're happy.

That's where the money is. Fred Reichheld of Bain and Company wrote in Prescription for cutting costs (2001) that in financial services, a 5 percent increase in customer retention produces more than a 25 percent increase in profit, because return customers tend to buy more over time.

Third, revisit your pipeline. You should have a list of people you're working on bringing on as clients. If you don't, you have another problem. Go through it in priority order, starting with whoever is closest to signing, and work your way backwards.

Fourth, expand your networking. Whatever your process is, do more of it. And again, if you don't have a process, that's a bigger problem. Congratulations: you now have a lot more time to network. That's a longer term play. It usually doesn't turn into clients right away, but it's what refills the pipeline.

Only after all of that would I do the thing most people do first: dissect what happened. Why did these clients go away? Was there anything you could have done? Is there a product or service you should be offering or changing?

That instinct is natural, and yes, you should do it. I would just do everything else first. If you want help building the networking side, book a networking chat.