I fired a $13k per month client. My very next thought was, “okay, cool, how am I going to make payroll next week?”
If you run a service business, you know that math. Every client has a name, a contract, and a line in next month’s budget, so saying goodbye to one can feel like the opposite of business growth. Plenty of advice says to add more: more clients, more revenue, more of everything. I went the other direction.
In business, it’s always a measurable loss. There’s always a dollar amount attached to it. But what I’ve seen is that every time I let go, I created room for something better: new ideas, stronger partnerships, healthier balance, more peace. Letting go creates space for possibility and makes room for something better to emerge.
Within a few weeks, a few more clients came in, and the new work far outweighed the loss. Most people treat letting go as losing. In my experience, subtracting is what made room for something better.
This article is for founders of service businesses, like MSPs and agencies, who are watching a client relationship drain the people doing the work. It answers four questions: when is it time to let a client go, is letting go the same as giving up, does success come from adding more or taking away, and how do you get through the gap before what’s next arrives?
When is it time to let a client go?
It’s time to let go of a client (no matter how much they are paying you) when they are not treating you or your team well, or you’re bending your terms to hold onto them.
With that $13,000-a-month client, the pattern was clear. I lived my people-first approach and put my team before everything else. If I have a team that has just been beat down and feels like crap all the time, they’re not effective. So I have to cut the people out of the business that make that happen.
Ask what would need to change first
Letting go is never my first move. Recently we were getting ready to let one client go. I laid out how we had lowered their rate to be a good partner when they were a quarter of their current size, and how we never revisited it after they grew. I called it a level set.
Is it money I wanted to lose? No, but I was tired of the game. So I asked my operations manager what the team would need to see change. The answer was to stop making everything urgent. We reclassified urgency, redefined our service hours (they had grown from a local company into a global one)…and they renewed the contract on our terms.
If we’re feeling this way, they probably are too. Have the hard conversation and name it early so that you don’t harbor anger, and that anger does not affect your team.
Is letting go the same as giving up?
No. Most people see letting go as a loss, especially in business when there’s always a dollar amount attached to it. That’s why holding on can look like strength and walking away like giving up. I believed that too. For years I held on to old systems, old clients, and old ways of thinking, because I thought that was strength.
Letting go takes intention, a deliberate decision, and a lot of courage…and ultimately, letting go makes room for something better.
This happened to Intel back in 1985. They were losing there memory chip business to Japanese competitors who made the chips cheaper and better. Intel’s president, Andy Grove, asked its CEO, Gordon Moore, what a new CEO would do if the board replaced them. Moore answered, “Get out of the memory business.” So the two of them did exactly that. Intel laid off more than 7,000 people, almost a third of its workforce, and shifted to microprocessors, a side business it had already pioneered. The personal computer built on microprecessors later fueled its success (WGBH, 2012).
The cut was painful and easy to measure, and it was still the move that freed Intel to put its effort into the business that was growing. That’s the same trade I made with my $13,000-a-month client. The loss was real, and the space it opened is where new and better fit clients came in.
Why holding on feels so logical when it may be time to let go
Holding on feels logical because we defend the decisions we’ve already made.
A 1976 study by Barry Staw shows this at work. He asked 240 business students to act as a company’s financial vice president and split R&D money between two divisions. The students who had made the first call and then watched that division decline put the most money back into it. Students who had inherited the decision invested less. Staw argued the first group was defending its earlier decision (Staw, 1976, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance).
Look at your own decision as if it belonged to someone else, just like Grove did it by asking what a new CEO would do. Executives must purposefully unlearn their emotional and cognitive attachments to old frameworks and methods in order to facilitate sustainable change and build new capacities.
Letting go of the negative ended up making room for the positive
After I fired that client, a few more came in within a few weeks that far outweighed the loss. My team changed too. Putting people first turned them into a really powerful, well-oiled machine, and I’ve been able to retain people. My longest-tenured team member has been with me 17 years (I think it’s 18 now, so I should probably update my metric). Some of our clients have stayed 20 years, 16 years, and 13 years.
You have to let go for growth. You can’t plant new ideas in soil already full of roots.
If you’re weighing a similar decision, my Evolving Onward 90-day journal can guide you in thinking through it.
The Beatles let go of touring to make their best music
By 1966, The Beatles were the most famous live act in human history. “Beatlemania” and touring had built their empire. However, the screaming crowds were so loud the band couldn’t hear themselves play, and the grueling schedule left zero room for musical growth.
Despite immense pressure from their management and fans to keep holding on to the lucrative touring model, the band made the deeply courageous and controversial decision to stop playing live concerts forever. They let go of the exact version of themselves that got them there. By redefining this loss of live performance as “space,” they freed up their time and creative energy to lock themselves in the studio. What emerged from that empty space was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Rolling Stone called “the most important rock & roll album ever made” and Time described it as “the most important and influential rock-and-roll album ever recorded” while The Washington Post declared that “Music may never be the same again.”
They had to let the mop-top touring identity die. It didn’t make sense on paper. But the decision ultimately allowed their artistic identity to emerge.
Why you need to let go of what once worked
Research demonstrates that when individuals or organizations heavily exploit the routines and skills that historically made them successful, they become structurally resistant to exploring new paradigms, which ultimately stifles long-term adaptation and growth (Levinthal & March, 1993). In organizational psychology, this is known as the “competency trap” or the “myopia of learning.” Said another way: we tend to overinvest in exploiting what they already know at the expense of exploring new knowledge.
Intentional subtraction gives exploration room to happen. While mainstream culture worships scaling (adding more clients, revenue streams, habits, and responsibilities), the research demonstrates the exact opposite: true elevation requires active subtraction. It asserts that growth is fundamentally incompatible with hoarding past achievements or having a bloated portfolio. You don’t climb higher by gathering more gear; you climb higher by dropping weight.
Embracing Change As A Good Thing
I’ve learned to realize that the change is coming and the good is coming.
It’s okay to be upset about letting something go, as long as you’re setting yourself up mentally for the success that’s coming. You have to process the loss, because it is a loss, regardless of how difficult it was. Give yourself the moment to say goodbye. If you’re still stuck on that loss a year later, you’re not growing.
Keep moving. You can’t just sit and hope. Keep talking about the amazing things you do. Don’t forget to have fun with it, because as adults we forget to play. If something doesn’t work, try something else.
Four practices I use to let go with grace
- Identify what you’re holding on to. Write down the systems, relationships, and expectations that drain your energy. Awareness comes before action.
- Ask what it’s costing you. Is this helping me grow or holding me back?
- Redefine loss as space. You can’t plant new ideas in soil already full of roots.
- Release with gratitude. This served me once, I’m thankful for what it taught me, and now it’s time to move on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does letting go of a client get easier?
In my experience, it does not get easier. The conversation has never been easy. At the same time, letting go can still be a win-win for both parties.
Should I try to fix the business relationship first?
With a recent client, I asked my operations manager what the team would need to see change. We redefined urgency and service hours, the client agreed, and the contract renewed. When a fix isn’t possible, that’s when letting go becomes the move.
I let it go. Now what?
It’s okay (and normal) to be upset about letting something go. You have to process the loss, because it is a loss. But don’t stay there. Set yourself up mentally for the success that’s coming.
What if the better client doesn’t show up right away?
Realize the change is coming and the good is coming. Keep working toward what you actually want. Give yourself the moment to say goodbye, but never stop talking about the amazing things you do.
Make room for what’s next
I fired a $13,000-a-month client and wondered how I’d make payroll the following week. A few weeks later, new work arrived that far, far outweighed what I had let go, and my team became a well-oiled machine.
Success can come from subtraction. Growth does not always mean another client, another service, or another commitment. Sometimes it means releasing what no longer fits so there is room for what does. Intel stepped away from memory chips, the Beatles stepped off the road, and I stepped away from $13,000 a month.
Notice what is happening. Brainstorm what would need to change. Bring it up with honesty and a plan. If nothing will change, give yourself the moment to say goodbye, then open yourself up to what’s next.
If you’re ready to make room for your next chapter, check out my 90-day guided journal to help you think through your next steps.