One of the benefits if being a business owner/manager is the ability to choose your own clients! This means there may be some that you decide not to do business with. It could be for many reasons – they’re not good at paying on time, they are not a profitable client, they have difficult or unusual demands that take time, or you simply don’t get along with them. The choice is yours!

Think about all the time and energy you put into some of your clients. Could you put that energy into your preferred clients who pay on time, allow you a good profit margin, are reasonable and easy to get along with? Could you then expand on your service offering to this type of client and direct your focus towards improving what you do for them? Wouldn’t that be far more enjoyable for you?

I hear you ask, “Well what about the sales I still make to my difficult clients? Even though they were difficult, they were still a sale.” This is a valid point however if you focus on your preferred clients and through this process increase your sales to them, you will not completely drop in sales. Freeing up your time will also allow you to work ON your business and not IN it quite so much. In doing this you could put together a marketing strategy to encourage new clientele, such as an incentive to increase referrals from your existing preferred clients that you are now impressing so much with your additional time and focus! Lastly, think about the stress you have eliminated from your life – what kind of price do you put on that?

The moral of the story is to keep in mind you are the master of your domain. If you don’t like it, change it.