An article in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution on July 19th featured Eddie Turner, owner of the small business, Footwhere, which sells dirt from various locations in the form of keychains. Turner discusses how the 1996 Olympic Games provided a boost to his business, but noted that the devotion of so much time to those projects sometimes alienated longtime customers, according to the AJC.

Sometimes in small business, we can throw ourselves into a new project or market, a method of attracting new clients. Enthusiasm is good, and customers are necessary to growth and profits, but we dont want to run the risk of losing established customers in the process.

When you embark on some type of project or marketing scheme, whether it involves preparing for a trade show or for the Olympics, make sure you compensate by continuing to maintain contact with your old clients. This is especially true for projects that focus on out of town customers (such as the Olympics). It does no good to make five or ten times your profit for one year if you have lost nearly all of your customer base and must focus the following year or two rebuilding what you already had. Better to focus instead on branching out while maintaining contact with past and present clientele.

As a small business owner, you probably have a lot on your mind. You already wear three or four (or five or ten) hats. However, make sure you keep your customer service hat firmly in place at all times, even if it means temporarily hiring someone to wear it or to take care of another part of the business so that you can keep that hat snuggly on the head of someone you know will keep your customers as priority #1. If you plan to be out of town for an extended time, or plan to focus your attention on bringing in new customers, make sure you are keeping your older customers happy.

It can be infuriating to grow your business slowly, especially when a fantastic marketing opportunity comes along. Sometimes we want to put more on our plate than we can handle at one time. If you plan to make a sudden jump in business or to work towards that jump make sure you equally plan to keep in touch with your customers. Perhaps you can contact them before the event and offer them a special deal before that date. Then you can contact them again afterwards with a thanks for being patient special offer. If you will be distracted for awhile such as over the Olympics offer several special just for customer deals midway through; perhaps you can open your store by invitation only to special customers, offer them a discount, or take the time to go the extra mile just for them.

Whatever we do as small business owners, we must always remember that attracting new customers costs, on average, five times as much as maintaining old relationships. That means that, as you focus on new projects, you could be doing 20% of the work to maintain your existing customer levels. By all means, dont cut back on bringing in new customers just remember that with a fifth of your effort, you could be maintaining your old ones while bringing in the new.