Bad Business — When to Walk Away

Know When to Break Up

Small business owners go into business with the mindset of finding new customers and keeping them. As an independent contract or small business, sometimes you have to know when to do the opposite. Firing customers is a challenging decision and one that many small businesses fail to recognize as an option. Toxic relationships in business can damage a company’s ability to grow and destroy morale. Let’s talk about how to recognize when to move on.

What qualifies as “Bad Business”?

Let’s start by talking about what makes for “bad business” and then we can share some examples and possibly share a few solutions.

As a business, your goal is to make money. If you’re defining your business in some other manner, you may want to step back and reevaluate what you’re really doing. You’re not a charity, you go to work to earn a living and to support yourself and probably a family. Bad business doesn’t always mean that you’re doing work for people that don’t pay or don’t pay enough. Sometimes it means doing work for customers that are toxic or that dominate your time to such an extent that it harms other business relationships.

I had a customer for a while that wanted me to serve as an advisor. Normally, I would say trusted advisor but this…