Throughout the years I’ve owned my own business, I’ve been lucky to work with clients who appreciate what I can do for them and are open to new ideas and suggestions. Other small business owners I know haven’t been so fortunate. They’ve put up with nasty, ungrateful and manipulative clients, thinking they had no choice.
The economy is getting better and no one wants to let a client go but sometimes enough is enough. In her blog post “Weed Out Your Customers From Hell,” Donna Fenn describes four types of clients that you should consider dumping. Two of the types are:
The Bully. They’re nasty, impossible to please, and they typically abuse your most important asset: your employees. No one is allowed to treat you badly. That applies in business and in your personal life.
The Tightwad. Times are tough for everyone, but a tightwad cares only about his own bottom line. He’ll beat you up on price until you’re working for pennies and then he’ll string you out for more than 120 days on invoices. Ask yourself whether the time you’ve spent trying to collect your payment is more than the time you spent working on the project. Doing the math may make it easier to fire the client.
At what point have you had to fire a client?
