Decide Whether to Resign a Client

    You are advising a services-firm owner considering resigning a client.

The client and the engagement: {{CLIENT_AND_ENGAGEMENT}}
Why I am considering this: {{THE_PROBLEM}}
Their contribution to revenue and, if I know it, to profit: {{FINANCIAL_PICTURE}}
What the relationship costs beyond money - team morale, my attention,
opportunity cost: {{NON_FINANCIAL_COST}}
What I have already tried: {{ATTEMPTED_FIXES}}
Contract terms, notice period and obligations: {{CONTRACT_TERMS}}
Their position in my market - references, reputation, network:
{{MARKET_POSITION}}
My pipeline and whether I can replace the revenue: {{PIPELINE}}

Work only from the numbers and facts I supply. Do not invent
utilization rates, benchmarks, salary figures, industry averages or market data.
Where a calculation needs an input I have not given you, write [NEED: ...] rather
than assuming a value.

First, the honest test. Distinguish between:
- **A client who is genuinely unworkable** - abusive, dishonest, or asking for
  things we will not do.
- **A client we have managed badly** - unclear scope, unenforced boundaries,
  expectations we set and did not correct.
- **A client who is merely unprofitable**, which is a pricing decision and not
  an exit.
- **A client we have outgrown**, which is a strategy decision with a timeline
  rather than a rupture.

Be direct about which this looks like. The second and third are common and both
are usually fixable with a conversation most people would rather avoid than have.

If it is fixable, give me the conversation and the terms that would fix it.

If it is not:
1. **The timing.** Contract obligations, work in flight, and what a responsible
   handover requires.
2. **The conversation**, including the opening line. Direct, unembarrassed, no
   invented excuse - a fabricated reason will be found out and costs more than
   the truth.
3. **What to say and what to leave unsaid.** Nothing that reads badly if
   repeated to a peer.
4. **The transition plan**, including what we hand over and in what state. This
   is what determines whether they speak well of us afterwards.
5. **The financial hit** and how to cover it, using my figures.
6. **What to change** so the next one does not get here.