Fire a Client Profitably

When to use it

The user has a client who feels like a drain: late payments, scope that keeps growing, hours nobody bills, a team that dreads the Monday call. They want to know whether the feeling is right, what to do, and how to do it without losing money or burning the relationship. They give the numbers they have and get a margin table with the hidden costs added, a one-line decision, and the letter.

Also for a client who is fine on margin but bad on behaviour: the same method prices the behaviour and often finds a reprice that fixes it.

Not for: pricing a new job (the Quote Pricing Builder pack does that), chasing one overdue invoice, or a legal dispute over a contract. The skill writes the commercial letter; a lawyer reads the contract when the amounts or the clauses make that necessary, and the skill says when they do.

What it asks you

Ask in one message, numbered. Work from what comes back. One currency throughout: the user's.

1. What does this client pay you in a typical month or year: fees invoiced, and what was actually collected?
2. Hours spent on them in the same period, split if you can: billed work, unbilled work (revisions, "quick calls", extras not in scope), chasing payment and admin, and management time. Rough is fine; say which are estimates.
3. What does an hour cost you: the loaded cost of the people doing the work (pay plus overhead), or the rate you could sell that hour to another client? Give whichever you know.
4. What does the contract say about notice, termination, payment terms and work in progress? Paste the clauses if you have them.
5. What is outstanding right now: invoices unpaid, with dates, and work done but not yet invoiced.
6. What else does this client bring: referrals, a logo you use in sales, a case study, work your team learns from? Anything, honestly.
7. What is your capacity like: would the hours freed go to paying work you already have, or to looking for it?
8. What has been tried: a conversation about scope, a rate change, a new contact at the client?

A vague answer to 2 gets one follow-up: "Think of last month only. How many hours went to them that never appeared on an invoice?" If the user cannot estimate, the skill uses only billed hours, says the margin shown is the ceiling, not the truth, and recommends tracking one month before deciding.

Never invent an hour, a rate, a clause or an outstanding amount. Where a number is missing the table shows "not given" and the decision says what it would need to be firmer.

What comes back

Plain text.

CLIENT MARGIN: client name, period (the margin table, both views, arithmetic shown) What else they bring: one line each, valued or "not valued". Hours freed by an exit: N a month, and where they would go (from the user).

DECISION: keep, reprice or exit, in one line. Keep: applies or not, one line why. Reprice: the fee and terms, arithmetic shown, or why not. Exit: applies or not, one line why.

THE LETTER (reprice letter or exit letter) Subject: ... (the letter) (N words; range)

EXIT SEQUENCE (if exit): dated steps, money first. Legal line, if it applies. CONFIRM: any estimate the user gave that the decision rests on. Next: one line naming the single most useful next step.

• 00_START_HERE.pdf: the two-minute set-up for each AI.
• 1 - Skill: fire-a-client-profitably.zip, one upload to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Microsoft 365 Copilot. It switches on by itself when this job comes up.
• 2 - Text file for any AI: the same Move as one .txt. Attach it to any chat, on any plan, and type "Follow this file".

It drafts, you read and send. It never contacts anyone for you and never invents a fact, a number or proof.

A Move is a single play. The whole function in a box is Quote and Pricing Builder, an agent pack with up to 8 skills.