No, it's not "Thank you." It's "You're fired."

Not all customers are equal. And not all are worth having. Some customers are merely anchors to a business - holding it back from growing and evolving. Customers that are rude, abusive, and overly demanding are obvious...you don't need to think twice about ending their relationship with you.

But what about the good customers?

The tougher customers to evaluate are the ones that are nice, thankful, and loyal. These are the customers that are so nice it hurts to think of parting ways. But sometimes you have to - low profit margins, requirements to support out-dated and obsolete technology and solutions, inability to keep pace with market rates for your services, divergence of business goals and objectives. Sometimes you have to let go.

guerrilla Consulting offers a thought provoking idea and question all business people would be wise to consider:

It's tough to drop a paying client, but the upside can be enormous. You'll likely replace that client with one or more projects that stretch you professionally, make positive changes in your new client's business, and boost your profitability.

So take a look at your client list. Is there an opportunity for growth through reducing the size of that list?

What do you think? Other than negative experiences, are their cases where firing a customer is a wise thing for a business to do...even if it's a loyal, paying customer? Or is it better to keep a paying customer, regardless?