Pulling a Trump

When you’re starting a new business – I’m the first to admit how easy it can be to want ALL the business you can possibly get your hands on.

The more experienced you get (and the less blinded by the initial jump in sales or client numbers) the more you realise that some business just isn’t worth having, regardless of the revenue it may provide, because of the time or energy it saps.

In my industry – real estate, you can typically put the type of business you don’t want to have into two categories: problem products and problem people.

Problem products for me are properties that aren’t going to be suitable for me to look after. They might be too far away from my core area, they might be outside the typical price bracket we work in or I might not be able to find great tenants for them given the type of database we offer.

Problem people are a whole other thing. These are the clients who can’t or won’t do business in the way that you need to perform your job best. For me that might be a property owner who thinks it’s okay to keep a property in a very poorly maintained state, someone who won’t provide me all the information I need to do my job or simply someone who is unpleasant or rude.

Problem products are typically easy to identify – you should be able to see these coming fairly easily and you should listen to the warning bells in your head and really consider whether the time it’s going to take to manage this type of business is worth the increase in revenue.

Problem people however can be a bit harder to spot. You might ignore initial rudeness in your eagerness to present a professional sales pitch, you might not know about information that’s being deliberately withheld. The hardest part is when you get to a stage where you know you’ve got a problem person – and unfortunately you’ve already accepted their business.

My suggestion? Channel Donald Trump and fire the client. As hard as it might be, put a high value on your time and energy levels and know that in firing that client you’ll have more time to dedicate to providing amazing service to nice, cooperative clients.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.