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All, Fix Company Problems

How to Fire a Client

Every entrepreneur will eventually fire an employee or severe a relationship with a supplier or vendor. These are the most common scenarios we associate with pink slips and the practice of doing business. However, there’s another we don’t often think about, or, only privately suffer because it’s difficult to own-up to a mistake. In this particular situation, you’ll have to fire a client and it can be very difficult to face. You must consider the financial impact, and, the dynamics [read: pain point] it will unleash on your business in the aftermath. You might be confronted with a negative review, an unpleasant back-and-forth, or even a total disruption of your business workplace.

Ways to Fire a Client

With the new year fast approaching, you’ve probably begun to focus on your personal and professional resolutions. One of them could very well be to purge toxic relationships, which include bad clients. These can be individuals who love to demand rather than delegate, micromanage work to the point there’s no real point someone else does any of it, insists on rushing which compromises quality, or other detrimental behaviors.

When you are just getting started with your business, you’re probably willing to work with any and every client who comes your way. However, not every client is a good one. The emotional, physical, and mental drain caused by a bad client relationship can keep you from enjoying your job and negatively impact the work you do for other clients. At times, the best way to grow your business is to let go of those clients who are holding you back. —Forbes.com

It could be a well paying client who has a penchant to promote pandemonium, one who expects deep discounts but superior work quality, wastes your time without remorse or even any acknowledgement of it. You know who he or she is because you dread any contact and even the sight mention of his or her name is enough to make you cringe. Still, you put-up with their bad conduct because you feel a sense of loyalty.

So, how are to you end such a relationship? Start with some genuine, introspective soul-searching. Is it something that you’re taking offense to that’s more about your personality? Are you contributing to the chaos with your own behavior? If you’re honestly not part of the problem, then try to resolve the situation first. Approach it subtly, but earnestly, and see what happens. If this doesn’t work, there are ways to fire a client and depending on the situation, one will probably be the best solution:

Inform the client you are refocusing your efforts. Every new entrepreneur will accept any type of work when first starting out, even if it’s not a strong-suit. At this early juncture, revenue flow is a top priority. However, it undermines and erodes the relationship over time. Use this to your advantage and explain how you are not serving his or her best interest. Point this out and gracefully bow-out.

Announce to the client you have to raise your rates. Money is a big deal — make no mistake about it. You know it to be true as does the professional who’s always espousing the healthy attributes of professional relationships, giving back to the community, good will, and the like. While those are indeed wonderful things, money is a practical part of business and announcing you’re raising your rates might just be the nudge which sets you free.

Give him or her options for other service providers. Explain you are moving in a direction to serve a specific subset of your clientele. Along with it, give him or her options, recommending different competitors.

Manage his or her expectations by providing actionable steps. Some clients will resist ending the relationship at nearly any cost. They’ll make promises about changing their behavior, bringing you more business, or other saving graces. Since you want to sever the relationship cleanly and permanently, provide a list of actionable steps he or she can take without your assistance.

If you aren’t necessarily dealing with a problem client, just one who is no longer profitable, but still pays on-time and is good-natured, speak with less expensive, alternative service providers and give them the business. This creates a win-win scenario for all parties.

In my past businesses and as a business consultant and coach, I have experience in each of these circumstances with customers and clients. I have found that the best approach is an honest approach with a strong dose of caring and encouragement. So, what customers will you fire or have that crucial conversation with in 2016?

Want to find out about what a business coach can do for you?

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Don’t Dare Make these Startup Customer Service Mistakes

May 5, 2017 No Comments

Your business is really your customers’ and when you stop to think about that, it puts things in perspective. You need paying customers to stay in business and when you pay them respect, you invest in your company’s future. We’ve all dealt with bad customer service and have shared horrific stories about our experiences. In fact, studies show that customers who are satisfied with a company will share their enthusiasm with two to three people. However, dissatisfied customers will share their negative experiences with eight to ten people, even as many as twenty. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, but too many business owners focus on the bottom line in ways other than customer service. They think about how to increase exposure, new opportunities, upping sales figures, and the like. It’s usually only when a problem arises, brought to attention by a particular person, that customer service is put front-and-center. By then, it could well be too late and that shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Costly Startup Customer Service Mistakes Whether you’re building your book of business or have several clients, you need to make customer service a top priority, and, one that is ingrained into everyday practice. Being proactive is essential to success in pleasing your customers, and, they will assuredly take notice. After all, we as consumers continue to patronize the same places where we are made to feel important, even if the product or service isn’t necessarily the best of the best. No matter how great your company’s product or service is, if your customer service skills are lacking, it won’t make much difference. This is especially true in today’s economy, as struggling business owners need every possible advantage over their competition. Unfortunately, far too many business owners make the same customer service mistakes over and over again, sending their customers into the arms of their competitors. —All Business.com That’s how important good customer service really is, it removes or displaces many objections, and, can be the single most powerful thing that beats out your competition. You ought to take advantage of anything and everything you can and this area is where your company can excel. What you shouldn’t do is to make one of these startup customer service mistakes: Not responding in a timely manner. Forgo those auto email replies because they deliver a message that you don’t want to send: you’re too busy to be bothered to personally respond. A simple reply shows there’s someone who cares and values the sender as a business partner. Taking on projects that aren’t within your core competency. When startups take on everything that’s asked of them, even things which aren’t part of their core competencies, they make a huge mistake. The results are highly likely to be disappointing and that can mean losing future business. Limiting your connections to your customers. Complicated phone trees and canned online forms only serve as a frustration point for your customers and send a message that you don’t want direct contact. Be willing and open to connect with your customers and they’ll feel important. You don’t follow-up with past and present customers. It’s absolutely imperative that you check-in and follow-up with past and present customers. It lets them know you value them and is a great way to build-up your networking skills. Not having a set customer service protocol. Everyone in your organization should be in-the-know about customer service protocol and follow it when needed. If you don’t establish a set of practices, you’re leaving too much to chance. Two other big no-nos are being too accommodating and being too defensive of constructive criticism. Taking on everything that’s requested to look bigger than you are is a one-way ticket to mediocrity, or even to failure. While not being able to accept and learn from constructive criticism will make you appear obtuse and/or egotistical. Be grateful for your customers and show it and that alone will do wonders. [shareaholic app=”follow_buttons” id=”26833294″]

Clever Strategies Small Business Owners Can Use to Pay Off Paralyzing Debt

November 6, 2025 No Comments

Starting, growing, or navigating a small business through an expansion or lean sales period can present several challenges. Not the least of which is racking up significant company debt. These balances add up fast, and before you know it, they’re eating well into your profit, and possibly, erasing your income altogether.

Why Too Much Business is Bad for Business

May 24, 2017 No Comments

We all know that a business without much business, that is sales, usually sails slowly into the abyss. In some scenarios, a lack of sales starts a fantastic slide into oblivion quickly, causing the organization to grind to an abrupt halt. Regardless if it’s a slow bleed to death or a rapid demise, the end results are the same. This is what most first-time entrepreneurs know and fear, which is why they put all their resources into an astonishing effort in a race to success. While this scenario is certainly common and there are countless examples of companies wanting to dissolution, there’s another situation which can manifest and cause the same outcome — too much business. Why Too Much Business is Bad for Business Sure, it’s paradoxical, but nonetheless true: too much business, too many sales, is bad for business. It’s a strange phenomenon, but, it can’t be allowed to become a reality. When a business grows too fast, it runs the risk of outpacing its own abilities and that can cause customers to be shortchanged and to outpace the businesses capital resources. That’s nothing short of a disaster waiting to unleash itself, sabotaging a company from the inside. Incremental change rather than big splashy launches? Caution rather than risk? That may not sound like the profile we’ve come to associate with entrepreneurs, but it’s exactly this somewhat paradoxical mix of creativity and innovation combined with restraint, regulation and caution that is driving the next phase of [the country’s] business growth. The culture of prudence that has sometimes led [the country] to be seen as an economic lightweight has, in these tough economic times, proven to be our greatest asset. –Ivey Buiness Journal A company can’t overreach or it will be overwhelmed. We’ve all seen the real world effects when Fortune 500 companies rush a product to market. The Sony Betamax, New Coke, the Apple Newton PDA, and Facebook Home are some of the most high profile product failures. These demonstrate that not every new product will work, and, show that even large companies can make huge marketing mistakes. These major brands, though, can push through such bad experiences because they have the capital, brand recognition, and diversification. For a small to medium-sized business, this usually isn’t the case and there are real dangers in growing a company’s sales too large, too quickly because: Your team members can’t keep-up with the demand. While it’s great to see a steep increase in sales, that means having to meet the demand. If your team isn’t large enough, you’ll probably opt to squeeze more out from each employee. Quality will suffer as a result and when you sacrifice quantity for quality, you’re doing your customers and company a disservice. You rush through the hiring process. Another option you might exercise is to bring on new team members. The problem with this is, in an environment where there’s not enough hands-on-deck, you’ll have to expedite your hiring process. This can easily lead to bringing people on-board without the proper skill-set, attitude, or work ethic. So, you’ll have to suffer the pain of replacing employees and incur the expense of additional training. You need additional tools to sustain output. The tools of the trade are hugely important to providing quality work. When there’s a hurry to get things done, you might not have enough at your disposal. The remedy will probably be impulse purchases and that means heavily risking buyer’s remorse. You can’t effectively manage the company. Every successful business owner knows that it takes time to find and mentor good organizational leaders. This will become unavoidably apparent when there’s too much going on for your personal attention to all the moving parts. Your steep growth strains your cash flow and drains your capital reserves. Most successful business owners recognize the need for capital to start a business, but sometimes fail to realize that more sales requires more capital. Sometimes a business owner believes that more sales brings more revenue and that revenue will capitalize the business growth. Although a business owner can strategically manage the business cash flow and growth with sales to capitalize it, this must be balanced carefully and strategically. Think of the strategy like flying a plane. When a pilot takes off, the plane is on a steep but controlled ascend and then the pilot steadies the climb. If a pilot were to pull back for a steep climb and try to push the throttles and the jet to climb faster than the aircraft was capable, the pilot would burn too much fuel, create too much force and the potential risk of having the plane stall. This is similar with a business owner who pushes too many sales too fast, business runs out of cash and it stalls leaving the business to nose dive. Yet another unpleasant consequence of increasing sales beyond capacity is that you’ll have trouble responding to customer needs. If anyone is going to recognize this shortfall immediately, it will be your customers. This is why incremental growth is a sound policy. It allows you to identify gaps, learn from your small mistakes, and, to adapt at a realistic rate. Want to find out about what a business coach can do for you? [shareaholic app=”follow_buttons” id=”26833294″]