Take a Stand Against Difficult Clients

When Peter van Aartrijk started his own consulting group, he was prepared to take on the business of some spiteful clients—but that didn’t last long. "I decided after about a year that I wanted to work only for, and with, people I like,” says van Aartrijk in an interview with Startup Journal’s Sue Shellenbarger. “A lot of times in business you run into people who are smart, but also incredibly rude and condescending and treat people around them horribly. They create a lot of inefficiencies…I'd estimate I was spending an extra hour a day at work just trying to satisfy unreasonable, frustrating clients.”

While van Aartrijk admits that small businesses trying to get their feet on the ground can’t always afford the luxury of turning away clients, he believes that working with agreeable customers grows your business over time. "I probably turn away about 20 percent of the revenue we could be bringing in,” he admits. “But I think we gain over the long term, in relationships with clients; we're still growing 20 percent a year.”

The point: You don’t have to accept the business of every client to make a living. Read more about van Aartrijk and learn about how to make money while standing up for yourself, and your employees.