Dave, I feel your pain. I can no longer count the amount of times I have not be able to get any kind of budget out of a customer, only to have them tell me the proposal is too high. I even had one last year in which I was told the budget was $10,000 and I came in at $7,000, and they said they could not spend that much money right now.

I too have decided this year will be different. I have fired two clients already. Both I have worked with for at least a couple years. Both were a drain on my energy and resources. They did not want to spend the appropriate amount of money to accomplish what they wanted to do, and both either bitched come paying the bill time, or would not pay without me chasing. One of them I had to go to their office with the threat of removing the equipment (I know I couldn't but they didn't). We walked in with a ladder, I walked out with a check.

At the end of the day, this is a business. If I am spending far too much time trying to get paid or trying to make the incorrect products perform functions they were never intended to, then it's time to walk away. Now if the clients had no issues paying me to keep working on the systems despite their improper use, then I'd have no issues with it, as the money would be coming in. It may sound harsh to those that do not run a business, but this business pays my bills. It is my responsibility to make sure that it continues to do so.