An interesting post by Claire Cox on her blog regarding how translators – or really freelancers in general – allocate their eggs in their basket(s) got me thinking about what my customer base looks like.
I feel like I have a good mixture of both agency and direct clients, with larger and smaller ones on both sides, as well as a variety of services on offer, with the odd client or request once in a while. To stay with the image: I have several baskets of several sizes with all kinds of eggs spread throughout. And sometimes, I move eggs around, get a new basket or even resize one.

Despite this, I have had some rough times where barely any work seemed to be coming in from anywhere, without any indications as to why. I gather from what colleagues say and write, though, that this is not unusual and happens to pretty much everyone at least once during their career.
I got through the slump, and not least because of my diversified customer base. I cant’ and don’t even want to imagine what might have happened had I been dependent on only one or two clients…

How about you? Do you have a sufficient number of eggs and baskets?