I just laid off a client. It’s the first time this has happened during my ten years of operating a marketing business. It’s sad and ironic, that during a time when so many people are losing their jobs, so many companies staggering on the ropes, that I would be laying off a paying client.

But it had to be done. Here’s why:

I always tell companies to focus on their target market, identify core customers, create clear and compelling messages to match customer needs, and then market smartly and aggressively.

Focusing like this isn’t easy. It means you can’t be everything to everybody, the position some companies want to take lest they lose a potential customer. And I’ll admit that occasionally those companies do get the new customer from another industry, a different size company, a bigger one-shot deal. Someone always believes it means the transformation of the company, and sometimes it does. Most often it doesn’t. Usually - either instinctively or based on data - a company knows what it does best for what kind of customer. And when you veer away, it’s easy to get lost.

That’s the reason I parted ways with my customer. I knew I could not best serve them; they were taking away my ability to focus on clients who were marketing driven. And to think our relationship had started with great promise a few years ago - a company with a small, growing, attractive services portfolio, with an established customer base in a high potential market. And enthusiastic about using marketing to grow.

Following some early marketing wins, business strategy ping-ponged, new markets were longed for, the services offering shape-shifted, executives came and went. That lead to new marketing plans, again and again, but not enough budget to support the new business objectives. The business strategy never stabilized, which meant marketing never found its balance. Which meant the same questions came screaming back at us: Who is our customer? What is their need? Why are they willing to spend scarce resources with us? How are we indispensable to them?

It got ugly. A lot of wheel spinning in the snow on both ends. That’s not what I do best. If nothing else, I drive marketing momentum.

In the meantime, my name had gotten passed around, and other companies were contacting me for marketing services. I started up with two new clients. Several existing clients are ramping up marketing efforts. I take these events as empirical, rather than anecdotal evidence, that marketing during a recession pays off.

I also take my decision to break ties with my former client as support for my constant pulpit-pounding about focusing on what you do best and for whom. Finding your sweet spot.

Losing a client this way is like ending a bad relationship. You’re not right for each other and you feel a little guilty, but you have to go ahead and do it anyway. It’s the only way to move on, move forward, be successful.