Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

Most business owners have the pleasure of working with some fantastic clients who may even become friends. Good clients see business relationships as partnerships that can benefit both parties. On the other hand, most business owners have also dealt with clients who are less than ideal to work with. In fact, some clients do more harm than good to your business.

The problem is knowing when to fire a troublesome client. How do you know when a client is just having a difficult time or working through problems that will pass? How do you know that a business relationship is not salvageable?

They’ve Become Dictators

You may have experienced extraordinarily demanding clients. Here’s how you know things have gone too far: 

• They call you outside of business hours
• Your work is never good enough
• They expect out-of-scope work for free

Before you fire a client who has turned into a dictator, consider whether or not you have ever explicitly explained what you consider to be reasonable work parameters. Have you ever explained that you don’t like to be called at midnight? Do they know that you don’t normally offer some of the services they’re asking for?

If you feel you’ve clearly explained what you can accommodate and what you can’t, and if the client is still behaving like a dictator, it’s time for action. Continuing to work with a dictator hurts your team’s morale and might even lead to employee resignations. Catering to a dictator can also lead to neglecting other clients.

They’ve Become Deadbeats

Deadbeat clients might be very friendly, and they may never call you on the weekend, but they have a habit that can be difficult to deal with: they don’t pay. They might never respond to your invoice, even after the payment deadline has come and gone. They might even say things like, “You’ll have your money by next Tuesday,” and Wednesday comes and you still don’t have the money.

This can be very distressing to your company’s cashflow. In lots of cases, deadbeats aren’t trying to cheat you; they’re just busy and disorganised. You might be able to save a relationship with a deadbeat by making it extremely easy for them to pay: “Joe will be driving by your office on Friday morning. He can stop in and pick up that payment.” You could also combine and add together all of their unpaid invoices, offer to take payment by credit card, and set up an installment plan. If these methods don’t work, it’s time to drop the deadbeat.

They’ve Gone Missing

Have you ever been hired for a project and then the new client disappears? You need information, data, and approvals in order to get started, but they never reply to your emails or texts? This can be very frustrating because you rearrange your schedule to accommodate the projects, you might even purchase supplies and hire workers, and then the client seems to be Missing in Action.

The first thing to do is to reach out and try to re-engage the client. Perhaps they got busy or their priorities have changed. Let them know about the time schedules you’ve created, and tell them about the consequences of not meeting key goals. Make it very easy for them to respond: “Here’s what we’re thinking. Is it okay to go ahead?” 

If, after at least five or six attempts, you still can’t get a simple next-step question answered, it’s time to give up. Consider getting back in touch in the future to see if they want to reconnect, but put your efforts into clients who are ready and willing to work with you now.

When clients have turned into dictators, deadbeats, or MIAs, it’s time to fire them and move on to clients who are more pleasurable to work with and better for your bottom line.