I know the title of this post may sound a bit harsh, but even the sunniest business owner has faced the cold harsh reality – sometimes the best thing you can do is let a client go.

There are many reasons why this may be. A client can become too demanding, your business has evolved to a point where you no longer want to provide a certain type of service, a client constantly pays slowly, you can only work with so many clients, and so on.

No matter what the reason, actually going to someone who has been paying you for a service and telling them you can’t do business with them, even if it’s the right move for both of you, is tough.

The strategy that I find has worked best for me over the years is to simply go to the client and inform them that you are making significant changes in your business and one of those is a need to raise your prices (something you should actually do anyway!)

Increasing the revenue you receive from a client will do one of two things: make them decide to move on, or make them less of a problem client.

In some cases the best thing to do with a problem client is to let them go no matter what, but in many instances your business will benefit by taking the approach of replacing clients with higher paying clients.