How about a red light?
Press on or bail out?
I'm not Andy, but I think I can answer from his perspective.
You don't want shitty clients. The customer isn't always right. Some clients suck and are not worth the time and effort of dealing with.
Reasons why clients suck include:
- Don't pay on time (destroys your cash flow and also a potential risk in terms of what you're investing into them... might never get paid)
- Take up too much of your time (this time could be spent on growth or simply enjoying yourself)
- Pain in the a$$ (usually this goes back to time, but sometimes it comes down to respect - depends how much self-respect you want relative to how much money you're making on them)
- Price (some clients give you the worst margins, tie up your cashflow, and tie up your time; that time and cash would be better invested into different clients)
- Dead end (if you're not adding value to them, eventually they'll leave; question for you is if it's better to take the short term money or invest that time into a client that will be recurring)
You're limited with a handful of resources: time, cash, psyche, etc.
Each time you take on a new client, chances are that they come at a time, cash, and emotional cost. You have to take all of the different factors into account, calculate how much you're actually getting paid (a lot of cash for a lot of work is not as good as some cash for no work), and then determine if they're worth it relative to the other opportunities available.
If you're just starting out, then your opportunity cost is zero, so you might take on a shitty client. But if you're established, then you can pick and choose and concentrate on what matters most to you. If you take on one client, you're limited in your ability to take on another. Is that one client worth the potential of another? These are all questions you need to ask. Each person's situation is different, but for the most part, no, you don't press on. You bail and look for better customers.