The Three-Client Rule

You need exactly three good clients to feel stable. Not two, not five. Three.

I mean, if you're a gigantic corporation you might want a few more? But if you're the kind of Yesfolk (freelancer, entrepreneur, startup founder building alone) who is just starting out: Two clients and you're fragile. One has a bad quarter and suddenly you're scanning LinkedIn at midnight, wondering if you should have stayed employed. Your nervous system never settles because half your income hangs on a single relationship.

Five clients and you're drowning. You're context-switching between different workflows, different communication styles, different levels of urgency. You're answering Slack messages at the weekend and forgetting who asked for what. You feel busy but somehow broke because you're not charging enough to make the chaos worthwhile.

But three? Three is the sweet spot.

Why three works

With three clients, you have diversification without fragmentation. If one goes quiet or ends the contract, you've still got two-thirds of your income. You're concerned, not panicking. You have time to find a replacement without desperation pricing.

Three clients fit in your head. You remember their preferences, their projects, their quirks. You don't need elaborate systems to keep track because you're not juggling seven different contexts. You can do good work without project management software you'll never actually use.

Three clients also give you pricing power. You're not so dependent on any single one that you can't push back on scope creep or hold your rates. If someone tries to negotiate you down, you can afford to walk away. That changes everything.

What three looks like in practice

Let's say you need £60,000 a year to live well (cough). That's £5,000 a month, or roughly £1,650 per client if they're evenly distributed. Add your margin for tax, slow months, and the fact that you're not actually billable every hour, and you're looking at £2,000-2,500 per client per month.

Is that a retainer? A project fee spread across the year? A handful of smaller projects? Doesn't matter. The structure is less important than the number.

When you hit three

Once you've got three solid clients, stop looking for more. Seriously. Close the door. Take yourself off the market. This is the moment most Yesfolk mess it up—they keep saying yes out of fear or habit, and suddenly they're back in the chaos of five or six. What you're looking for initially is to upsell those clients by doing an amazing job. Instead of continually chasing new work on the biz-development-hamster-wheel.

Instead, protect your three. Do excellent work. Raise your rates gradually. Build in breathing room. If one client naturally ends, then, and only then, find a replacement.

Three good clients aren't a stepping stone to scale. They're the destination. They're enough.

Your move

If you've got more than three clients right now, look at your list. Who could you let go? Who's taking more energy than they're worth? If you've got fewer than three, what's one action you could take this week to find one more solid relationship?

Three isn't a compromise. It's the Yes-architecture of a sustainable solo business.