Tip 5: There will always be some customers you can’t afford to do business with …

… for a number of reasons. Here are 12:

1) The client or the job is too big for you – you don’t have the resources;
2) you’ll lose other customers that are important to you;
3) you’ll become too specialized;
4) they drive too hard a bargain;
5) they’ll be too time consuming;
6) their dodgy reputation will taint your good name;
7) you’ll generate bad press from the deal;
8) they will bully you;
9) you suspect they’re working for your opposition (or they will become your competition);
10) what they want is unreasonable or unachievable;
11) the risk of failure is too high;
12) doing business with them will ultimately cause you some commercial harm.

©2006 Jane Francis is the author of Price Yourself Right: A guide to charging what you are worth (ISBN: 0-595-38601-6) available at Barnes and Noble (USA), WH Smith (UK) or online at amazon.com