I’m sure you have clients who raise your blood pressure as soon as you see their name on your schedule. After years of hard work building a solid business, getting rid of clients seems to fly in the face of your desire to increase your client base and income. But firing clients may just be what your business and your mental health need.

“Entrepreneurs have this horrifying sense of scarcity, that the customers they have are the only ones in the world,” says G. Richard Shell, professor of legal studies and management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “That is not true. But [firing clients] takes courage.”

Of course, you don’t want to fire a client who you cannot afford to lose. Just because you don’t like them or they are sometimes a problem doesn’t mean that these clients need to be fired. Normal problems are just part of being in business.

Before you decide to part company with a profitable client, make sure you can replace or survive the financial hit of the income loss. That means making up for lost revenue by redoubling efforts to bring in new business.

Don’t wait until you are mad before discharging a client. When you just absorb the abuse until you can’t take it anymore and then fire the client in an emotional outburst, you will give the client the impression that you are unfit to work with animals because you are too immature or emotionally unstable. You will also give…