It depends on what you want to do next and from which sources you want to build your recurring revenue. Building recurring revenue before quitting the client or venturing in a product business is the key.
Let's say that your one current client is like having a day job. It's wise to keep them if they're your only source of income, until you find more exciting and equally / more profitable sources of income.
A couple of ideas:
- try to get a couple of new clients, but only a few, so that you can manage them. Put them on a retainer and service them yourself for starters. Repeat until you have enough money from that on retainer. Aim for fewer clients at higher retainers.
- hire a person (as an outsourcer, or paid by the hour, or similar) to help you service the existing client first and the new clients later. Keep training that person so that there's less and less manual work for you, and keep overseeing everything she/he does (be the quality control person). This brings you closer to a real business (other people do the work, you sell and negotiate deals)
- let's say that you now have one colleague that does the work, and a couple of clients who pay just enough consulting to make you feel relatively safe. Let's say that you've organized this in a way that leaves you 50-75% free time to work on The Thing You Really Want To Do. Now, do you want to build a professional service business, or a product business?
In any case, if your work is the only source of income and you can't raise any capital (not even from friends, fools, and family), building recurring revenue streams first is how you get out of any rut, because getting out of the rut requires freeing up your valuable time first.
Does this make sense? Would any of this work in your case?
Let's say that your one current client is like having a day job. It's wise to keep them if they're your only source of income, until you find more exciting and equally / more profitable sources of income.
A couple of ideas:
- try to get a couple of new clients, but only a few, so that you can manage them. Put them on a retainer and service them yourself for starters. Repeat until you have enough money from that on retainer. Aim for fewer clients at higher retainers.
- hire a person (as an outsourcer, or paid by the hour, or similar) to help you service the existing client first and the new clients later. Keep training that person so that there's less and less manual work for you, and keep overseeing everything she/he does (be the quality control person). This brings you closer to a real business (other people do the work, you sell and negotiate deals)
- let's say that you now have one colleague that does the work, and a couple of clients who pay just enough consulting to make you feel relatively safe. Let's say that you've organized this in a way that leaves you 50-75% free time to work on The Thing You Really Want To Do. Now, do you want to build a professional service business, or a product business?
In any case, if your work is the only source of income and you can't raise any capital (not even from friends, fools, and family), building recurring revenue streams first is how you get out of any rut, because getting out of the rut requires freeing up your valuable time first.
Does this make sense? Would any of this work in your case?