Some in the industry are of the opinion that the "bad" paying customer cannot, by definition, exist, though often enough such opinions come from the same group of people who state that there is no such thing as "bad" publicity. In reality, this is far from the truth, particularly for a business owner looking to develop a viable, growing business. Ultimately, you need to have the power to choose your own customers from the pool of those who wish to make purchases from your business. Yes, that is correct: you have to have control over choosing your customers!

Why would you say that? It would seem that a business owner should accept the business of anyone who is willing to pay for it. However, this is not the case, in my humble opinion. Many approaches to increasing cash flow are short-sighted, and that includes not having any standards about who you will accept as customers. It is generally agreed that manipulating people into buying your goods and services is a poor long-term strategy. However, many business owners adopt the approach that they cannot afford to turn down any potential paying customer. As tempting as it may be to accept all the business that comes your way when you are starting out and cash flow is low, the long-term consequences to your business can be so severe that they more than cancel the beneficial effect of the extra revenue.

Business owners are best to be wary of customers who are a poor payment risk. It is tempting to sell to anyone in order to make a profit but in the long run you will lose money. The main problem is that these people are usually willing to purchase even thought they know they cannot afford the item or service that you offer. By the time you take these people through collections you will probably still wind up without any money. A result of this kind of business can be seen in the recent mortgage industry crisis. People who could not afford mortgages were approved and now cannot pay. As a result of these poor business decisions the country is now in a recession and we all suffer. Remember to do a through investigation into the financial capacity of potential customers and you will save yourself a lot of lost time and money.

Believe it or not there is one group of paying customers that you would be best not to do business with. These are the constant complainers who are never satisfied. You can usually pick out these customers because they are very vocal and will tell you about problems they have had with other companies. Even though they have the financial means to pay you the headaches that you will experience is not worth the effort. The idea is to be aware of these people and you will gradually learn how to weed them out of your customer base. One way of doing this is to find out if they have a legitimate complaint against another company. If you know the company they are complaining about has a good reputation then it is probably best to avoid these people. Once they purchase something they are always complaining about it and you will probably be on their bad list with your competitors also.

The consumer organizations above are too often passed over by most companies. On the other hand, there are some consumers you will want to do without. These consumers have no need for your products or services. A lot of companies feel that it is up to the consumer to figure out what they want to purchase while the company is out to sell as much as they can to any consumer. But this is a not a good long term plan and will negatively impact your business. Once a consumer is dissatisfied with your product or service, you will be blamed, even if it is not your fault. You are well-advised to be honest from the outset and admit you are not sure your business can satisfy the consumer's desires and you cannot risk disappointing the consumer. To get around this problem, you need to accurately characterize your product or service with no hype typical with most ads. Let them know exactly what you have so they will be sufficiently informed. Better yet, find out exactly what they need to ensure that what they desire will actually perform up to their expectations. It may turn out that an alternative offering you can provide may work better for them, or you may not be able to satisfy their desires. If this is the case, it is best them to give them a referral to a place that can help them. You will likely get business from such a person at a later time when you might be able to help them.