You’re fired!

I’ve never really been a fan, but for some reason I’ve been following this season of Celebrity Apprentice. I know it’s a TV show, but I’ve been particularly fascinated by Donald Trump’s boardroom demeanor, primarily his way of taking the emotion out of decision making.

Even when the celebrities get all riled up, Trump keeps his cool, goes through the details of their performance, and then drops the “You’re fired.” bomb out of no where. No blinking. No apologies. He just does it.

As a small business owner (SBO) one of my greatest flaws is keeping the emotions out. I know I’m justified in being emotional… this enterprise is my family’s sole source of income and is the basis for all of our futures. Heavy lifting, if you get my point. But keeping decision making emotion-free is critical. Emotions cloud judgment and cause us to make poor, irrational choices.

One area that can be particularly emotional for SBOs is in customer relations.

Some customers are a dream… they are fun to work with, their expectations are reasonable, they don’t haggle on price, they pay on time, etc. etc. Others are not so wonderful. They demand more for less and quicker, and then they are slow to pay the tab. What is a SBO to do, though; we need all the customers we can get, right?

Not so. A blog I read recently said it wonderfully, “The customer is always right -- if it's the right customer.” Good customer service is a must, but you’re just not going to be able to please everyone and for plenty of perfectly normal reasons.

One of the greatest necessities in a client relationship—especially for those of us in a service industry—is chemistry. You and your customer need to like one another on a personal level in order for your professional relationship to really work.

But let’s say you’ve begun working with a client and it’s just not sparking. Or, worse, sparks are turning into flames, but not the good kind. What do you do?

Fortunately we haven’t been in that situation too many times at Emogen, but we have had to “fire ourselves” more than once. In those instances, we contacted the client and explained our decision and the basis for it. We also provided recommendations for our replacement and offered to assist with the transition (providing files, data or artwork) to their new provider.

I feel confident in saying that the times we’ve had this discussion, the client recognized the situation for what it was and was ok and maybe even a little surprised that we would direct them to a new provider and assist in establishing that relationship.

It’s really ok that you can’t work with everyone. It’s normal. Instead of becoming a slave to a bad pairing, though, take a lesson from Trump and remove the emotion from the situation. Ask yourself if the extra effort required for the relationship is going to be worth it in the long run. If not, then it’s probably wise to call it quits.

-Sarah, Emogen marketer