I learned this one the hard way. More than once.

The punchline first: always be marketing. Not because it looks good on a coffee mug, but because it’s the only thing that flattens the peaks and valleys in your revenue.

The day 90% of our revenue moved to the Bahamas

My first startup was a website development & hosting business. Two guys, a DTLA office, one beefy web server, and a partial T1 line. We built Web 1.0 sites and handled technology for a small group of clients.

Then we landed a big one. For about a year, that account took nearly all our attention, and it paid like it. At the end of that year, the client shut down their business and moved to the Bahamas.

Just like that, we had to replace 90% of our revenue.

For the next couple of years, we lived project to project. Land a deal, keep our heads down until launch, then have the same conversation every time: where’s the money coming from now? We picked up a few one-off projects, which cobbled together enough money to pay rent, the T1 bill, two modest salaries, and beverages to keep us awake. The next month, we did it again (and it usually included the “who is gonna get a day job?” conversation). We built some weird websites.

Things only settled down once we were big enough to put real, regular time into marketing. That role fell on me. I’d spend an hour each day working on our website, researching competitors, and asking around. PPC wasn’t a thing yet, and SEO was completely different.

Why the valley sneaks up on you

Here’s the part that took me too long to understand. Marketing doesn’t pay off when you do it. It pays off later. A referral ask today becomes a meeting next month and a signed deal the month after that.

So when you get busy and stop marketing, nothing happens. Not right away. The pipeline you built before the busy stretch keeps feeding you, and everything feels fine. Then the current project wraps, you look up, and there’s nothing there.

The valley wasn’t caused by a slow month. It was caused by the busy months before it. Which means your busiest stretch is exactly when you’re building your next drought.

“I don’t have time” is the whole problem

Every business owner reading this is thinking the same thing: I’m slammed, I can’t market right now.

I get it.

Delivery pays the bills, and you have to deliver to survive.

That’s why the answer isn’t a big marketing push when things slow down. It’s a small one that never stops. The routine has to be light enough to survive your worst week.

A routine you can stick to

Take fifteen minutes a day before you open your inbox. Here’s one version:

  • Monday: Text or email one past client. No pitch. Ask what they’re working on.

  • Tuesday: Ask one happy customer for a referral or a review.
  • Wednesday: Share one thing you learned on a job this week. A short post, a note to your email list, a photo with a sentence of context.
  • Thursday: Follow up with anyone who said “maybe” or “not right now” in the last 90 days.
  • Friday: Tend whatever runs in the background. Adjust a small ad, sign up for next month’s networking event, update your Google Business Profile.

None of this is clever. That’s the point. Five small touches a week is roughly 250 a year. A pipeline built that way doesn’t vanish the moment you get busy.

One more warning: watch your biggest client

Going quiet on marketing wasn’t our only mistake. We also let one client become 90% of the business.

A useful rule of thumb: if any single client is more than about a quarter of your revenue, treat that as a risk, not a win. Great clients still close up shop. Some of them move to the Bahamas.

Marketing isn’t an event. It’s a routine.

Do something every day. Not when the current project wrap or when the calendar clears. A small, steady investment keeps revenue smoother than anything else you’ll do.

And if marketing keeps losing to delivery on your calendar, that’s exactly the problem we solve at Twisted Puppy.

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