Working online can be great for generating income without high expenses. While offline businesses have to pay for office space, the daily commute, and expensive hiring and personnel costs, most online business – service businesses in particular – can subside with even the smallest amount of positive cash flow.

However, there’s one problem that’s permanently plaguing a lot of online service businesses: downtime. When the bulk of your work is taken up by a few valuable clients, there are almost always times where your business is left without anything to do. Clients occasionally go without orders for a long time, leaving your business in an income drought that’s hard to fix.

Then on the other end of the scale, there are online service businesses that are so focused on client work that they’re unable to escape from it. Constant orders keep their attention, and expanding and advancing is difficult because of the permanent workload. While great from an income perspective, this situation makes it difficult to expand and refine your business’s goals.

These five tips aren’t going to make your business ultra-efficient right away, but they’ll certainly let you inject some control and lifestyle into your online service business. From sole freelancers to multi-person online businesses, anyone can apply these tips to control their business, cut down on needless proposals and client management, and refine their focus on work.

Aim for long-term clients, and turn down one-off requests.

Whenever you’re advertising your services, you need to frame requests and processes in your own terms. Saying you’ll take on anything and everything leaves you open to patently exploitative requests, and just causes extra work for you in turning them down. Instead of advertising to anyone, be selective in where and how you advertise. Let people know you’re looking for long-term contracts, and don’t be afraid to turn down work that’s not worth it for you.

This mainly applies to your own active advertising. If you’re looking for long-term clients through job postings, it’s best to apply for everything. Sometimes a one-off gig can turn into a lucrative long-term business relationship. When you’re applying for contracts that other people are posting, it’s best to contact them directly and ask about long-term work potential.

Set minimum order requirements.

This is a great way to filter your incoming contracts, making it easier to pick the best ones. Instead of allowing orders to be placed for any quantity, set up an ‘order budget’ function on your website, allowing clients to propose a budget range for the project. Simply by having it start above your minimum order requirements, you’ll eliminate potential projects that aren’t worth it for you.

Prioritize clients that are easy to work with.

Sometimes it’s worth taking on any project you can find. We all have work droughts, and when they come in, sometimes the least lucrative work from the past becomes a welcome addition to your schedule. However, taking it on at the expense of others’ isn’t a smart strategy, particularly when those long-term clients bring in a greater portion of your online income.

Whenever you’re taking on a small project from a client that doesn’t contribute hugely to your business, let them know that you’re working with other people and may not be able to deliver quickly. Think of this – which client do you want to have the best experience from your business; the client who places one tiny order every three months, or the client who places a large order every week? Prioritize clients that are valuable to your business.

Audit your income sources, and eliminate the ineffective.

It’s not uncommon to see a business that works with 100 clients, of which only ten or so bring in any reasonable monthly income. Hour after hour is poured into maintaining relationships with clients that simply aren’t profitable, and in the end the business ends up losing potential income because they’re simply too busy dealing with contracts that don’t work in their favor.

There’s a simple solution to this: elimination. Instead of accepting any orders that are above your hourly rate and meet your project criteria, be more selective in the type of clients that you take on. Aim for long-term relationships (they’re by far the most low-maintenance from an earnings point of view) and don’t be afraid to have ‘now or never’ talks with clients that are proving ineffective for your business.

Remember, there’s a slight divide here between effective and ineffective. Some businesses might need your services to survive. If they’re proving difficult to work with, don’t just eliminate them straight away. Explain what’s causing problems for you, be clear and frank with your clients, and let them choose whether they want to continue working with you or not. While it’s often effective to eliminate ineffective work, it’s definitely not cool to fire clients indiscriminately.

Find the best promotional methods, and spend big on them.

That’s not a literal spend. Sometimes the best outlets for promotion are free, and spending time on them could be all that’s required. As a freelancer, you’ll undoubtedly find that some promotional outlets are more effective than others when it comes to finding long-term clients and low maintenance business relationships. When you find them, make them a focus of your personal marketing efforts.

Applying to job advertisements costs you time, which in effect is costing you money. Instead of simply applying to anything and everything, define exactly what you want from your freelance work, and shape your promotional efforts to reflect your goals. Sometimes the most underutilized marketing platforms are the best for promoting yourself.

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