Lesson 6: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

TEN Years, 10 Lessons: What We Wish We Knew When We Started 

 In October 2025, Eleven Eleven Talent will turn 10. To celebrate, we’re sharing 10 lessons, one each month about what we’ve learned in a decade of building a business. From community-building to resilience, from hiring to firing, these are the insights we wish we knew when we started.  

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a recruiter, or navigating your own career path, we hope these lessons support you in building something meaningful and lasting. 

Lesson 6: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket 

Why diversifying your clients, revenue streams, and strategies can be the difference between stress and stability. 

For the first few years of our business, we put everything into a handful of clients. And for a while, it worked. The relationships were strong. The work was fulfilling. The revenue was steady. Until it wasn’t. 

In a matter of months, an industry shift, budget cuts, and a global event we never saw coming shook everything loose. Clients paused. Some disappeared. One we were heavily invested in made internal changes overnight, and just like that, a massive chunk of our income vanished. 

We weren’t just scrambling financially, we were reeling emotionally! 
We had assumed the consistency. 
We had underestimated the fragility of putting all our energy in one basket. 

That season taught us one of the most valuable (and humbling) lessons in entrepreneurship: 
Security doesn’t come from size. It comes from structure. 

And more importantly: You don’t just build to grow. You build to last. 

 
Here’s What We’ve Learned (So You Don’t Have To) 

Diversify your clients. 
No matter how strong a relationship is, industries shift, people change, budgets get cut. Spread your work across different sectors, business sizes, and leadership styles. One anchor client should never carry your entire business. 

Create multiple revenue streams. 
Think about how your skills, services, and brand can show up in more than one way - consulting, fractional work, speaking, products, digital offerings, or retained models. Different revenue channels = different levels of resilience. Our revenue streams today consist of our recruiting business, real estate, the stock market and live + digital corporate mindfulness programs.  

Build for consistency, not just intensity. 
Instead of sprinting from contract to contract, build a business model that lets you breathe between seasons. Recurring revenue and long-term partnerships make all the difference. 

Know your numbers. 
Revenue doesn’t equal stability unless it’s repeatable. Pay close attention to where your money is coming from, and what happens if any one of those streams dries up. 

The more diverse your business, the more freedom you’ll have. 
Freedom to say no. 
Freedom to weather a storm. 
Freedom to walk away when a client or contract no longer aligns. 

Because stress shrinks you. 
But structure? 
Structure sets you free. 

Next up: Lesson 7 – Growth is Messy (And That’s Normal) 
We’ll share the behind-the-scenes chaos of scaling—what we expected, what we didn’t, and why a little mess is a sign you’re doing something right.