Selecting clients

Did you realize that just as your clients select you, you should also select your clients? Its true and just like you may occasionally have a bad employee (a poor investment) so might you have a bad client (also a poor investment) whose relationship needs to be terminated.

Any relationship is an investment of your time, intellect, mental, spiritual and financial resources and just like any other investment you want it to grow and mature. Any investment starting out needs you to grow and nurture and pay special attention to it yet over time as they mature this relationship should grow into one that benefits both parties not just the client. In cases where the relationship remains excessively one sided, reverses, or become a drain to your resources then like any good broker you have to make a call as to whether the investment was a wise decision and in some cases it is not.

There are some tell tail signs you can look for when make your decision as to whether to do business with a person or a company

• How do they speak of their other vendors?
• How do they treat their employees?
• What do their employees say about them?
• Do they treat others as if they are beneath them?
• How is their business organized?
• How do they make business decision?
• What sort of ethics do they use?
• What does your gut tell you?

Fact is while it is more the exception then the rule some business just is not worth it or the price – taking a job for example that pays $140 when you cost if $200 does not make sense and this too is a factor. So you must also have a great working understanding of your business

• What are your margins?
• What is your rate?
• What is your per job break even point?
• How mature is your business?
• What sort of reputation do you have?
• Do you have the intellectual or financial capital and/or good will to perform the job?

Running a business is not for everyone especially the delusional or the faint of heart. You must know yourself well, understand your business and know what your strengths and weakness are – only when you have a high level working understanding of these things can you make educated business decisions.

With that in mind are you ready to manage your investments properly?