LET’S GET AHEAD! … by neil smith - Make Money, Save Money, Seal the Deal!

7/30/08

The great thing about owning your own business is that, once established, you can choose who to service and who not to service. A professional goods or service provider should never feel compelled to spend time and energy on clients and prospects who may be disrespectful, waste a great deal of your time and resources and not provide an adequate return for your troubles. These types of clients are what I like to call “DEAD WEIGHT” and can drag like an anchor on your business! While letting go of a client should always be the very last resort one turns to, sometimes it is the only proper call to make.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a client whose business I had been servicing for a number of years and we had always been on the best of terms. This client’s location was about a 2 hour drive from where I am based. Their budget had been set at a certain amount and they could not raise it, so as gas prices climbed, my profits dwindled more and more. I still continued to service this client because I just genuinely liked them and enjoyed seeing them and sometimes business is just about the ability to enjoy your life and what you do, and not always about the almighty buck, so I happily took care of them.

Over the past year however, this client started developing a habit of unreliability in our scheduling and I had been passing up better money opportunities in order to honor our scheduled service appointments, so I had to make the hard choice to let them go as a client. In essence, as much as I still love them to this day, they had become more trouble than they were worth.

You wouldn’t tolerate an employee who brought nothing of value to your company, so why do so many feel compelled to tolerate “DEAD WEIGHT CLIENTS?” If you are just starting out with your business, it could make sense to put up with a few clients who are seemingly more trouble than they are worth in order to have a list of satisfied (though in reality, some may be unsatisfiable) customers you can point to in order to gain new business. But as time goes by, if you are not able to derive what you need in order to continue your services, CUT BAIT, MOVE ON AND DON’T LOOK BACK.

Of course, firing your customers can also come with a hefty price in the form of negative word-of-mouth, if not handled with finesse. I once worked for a company that got acquired by a foreign corporation and the new owner decided the best way to move forward was to FIRE THE ENTIRE CLIENT BASE, lay out new terms of service and tell this base of clients that if they were acceptable to the new terms, service could be continued and if not, they were welcome to seek services elsewhere. This was definitely not the brightest group of business owners I have worked with. The result was absolutely devastating and business dropped by over 70 PERCENT literally overnight and we watched our competitors happily swoop in and take our livelihoods.

So the moral of this story is - FIRE YOUR CUSTOMERS when they become dead weight, but do so selectively and with the greatest of care and only if it is the right call for YOUR happiness and YOUR business! Now get out there and get business done!
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If you liked this article, fire me some loot, Hoss!

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~letsgetahead

Tags: Fire your customers, running a business

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I started as a guitarist in 1986 at the age of 18 touring and recording with punk and hard rock bands across the USA as well as Canada and Japan. During the tech boom of the 90's, I began working entry-level marketing jobs for various tech-related companies (they were hiring anyone with half an aptitude back then) where I received professional training marketing and various forms of business technology. After the tech crash, I floundered in various office jobs, usually going through about 3 per year all while still performing in bands at night. By about 2003, I had built up my entertainment business enough that when I got laid off from my clerical job at a law firm, I was able to shift to performing as my full-time living. I never lost my taste for technology and starting developing an interest in self-help gurus as well (hey, don't we all want to be rich and successful!?). I discovered brilliant minds such as Suze Orman, Jim Cramer, Tony Robbins (I always thought that guy was a total douche-bag until I found one of his cassette tape courses by a garbage dumpster and decided to give a listen through and see what he's all about. I was very surprised at just how brilliant of a guy he is.) and have most recently discovered John Chow whose methods for making money online I am currently attempting to follow (thus this blog and the chronicling of my journey down this path while trying to build a community where we teach each other how to make better lives for ourselves and one-another). I still perform several nights per week throughout the Southwest and if you would like to come see me, just check out my calendar at http://www.neil-smith.com . Hope to see you soon! Neil Smith