Why You Should Fire Good and Bad Clients

What? How dare I suggest getting rid of some of your clients in this economy? Yep, I'm encouraging you to review all your current clients and fire those that are not only difficult, but also nice. Letting them go helps your company stick to its vision, mission and goals while better serving your employees by shedding the negativity and energy drain that comes with having the wrong clients.

Bad Clients

We'll start with the easy one: bad clients. These clients hold up work. They pay late. They don't return calls. They contact you often and at all hours.

These clients affect your employees, which in turn, affects your ability to keep them. Frustrated employees may seek greener pastures elsewhere or allow the negativity that comes from dealing with the client spread like a virus. Although your bad client may not require more time than the average client, everyone's lousy mood interferes with providing good customer service and working with each other.

You can't help but feel slower and grumpier when you get sick. For curable and unknown illnesses, you go to the doctor to find out how to stop the illness. As soon as you treat it, you slowly feel better and more energetic.

Dump the bad client who makes everyone sick and you'll restore energy and positivity that you may replace the client with two good ones. That means more profit and growing your business.

Good Clients

Dropping a bad client is obvious. But dropping the good client? Fire the guys in the white hats? Whether it's you or the client, things change when you work together for a long time. Your company may find a new direction that brings in more business and boosts profits. Holding on to old direction clients slows the company. It's like multitasking, splitting your attention. Shedding the old business lets you fully focus on the new business.

Another reason for letting go of good clients is the work you do for them may be unsatisfying. Your company took on the client because it was the right move at the time. Having the client allowed the company to grow and gain experience. In reality, the work takes longer to do than it should because you dread it. Your business has grown enough and your employees have more experience that it's ready to move on.

In some cases, the client does the changing. The client's new direction may no longer fit your company's profile of an ideal client. Sometimes the good client simply takes more time or money that it's not profitable for your company even though it's work that you enjoy. Perhaps, a renegotiation is in order whether it's to hike prices or charge extra for the time and expense to ensure your company profits. This is why it's important to understand how much your customer is worth.

Need help on firing a client? Here are five tips for firing a client.

Have you ever let a client go? What was the reason? What other reasons would you fire a client?