Knowing When to Part Ways

Today is the first day I had to end a job with a client because I knew it wouldn't be a good fit. Surprisingly it was easier than I thought it would be :). Why am I writing this blog post if not to be self-congratulatory? Because I think it is one of the toughest things to do for anyone who handles clients. If you think about it you are walking away from cash. As a consultant/business you can never be sure if/when everything will dry up.

However, what would have been the downsides if I had taken on this client?

• A strained relationship making both sides annoyed, angry, etc...
• Potential legal issues if it got really out of hand (very doubtful in this case)
• No payment from an unfinished job
• The client would have had a negative view of me and would have probably not told other people about me
• My work for my other clients could have gone down the toilet losing other revenue
• Loss of trust by the person who recommended me
  

I am sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. So what are the upsides? A little bit of cash and one more client to take care of. In my head since I knew it would have been strained relationship because our personalities conflicted a lot it was a better idea to lose the money. I know I can make up for the money so I figured that shouldn't be a huge factor.

But this doesn't apply to just client relationships. I think this applies to all business type of relationships that have to be done. Once people get busy there needs to be some filter to figure out what takes priority and what projects/tasks a person should take on and others that should be turned away because you know you are not the best person to do the job.

My question to my readers, what things would you turn away?