Small jobs are marginally profitable, but you booked this job with the expectation of a few hundred in revenue. But with any service-type client you're hoping for a big sale at some point. Suffice to say, it won't happen here, any future big tickets will come from this connected competitor.

Professional detachment. Easy to say. But if you had not discovered this new work, would you be happy continuing to service this client? Because you can only afford to cherry pick when your days are completely filled - and you're faced with retiring certain clients in favor of higher revenue.

I'm dealing with a similar issue on a larger scale. Major client, we dedicated a crew to spend most of 2004 renovating a 25k sf home (we charged hourly). The following year we installed $500K of gear, and continued to add over the years.
All's well until he decided to expand the home by another 13k sf and brought in a new architect. Who convinced the owner to use his guys.

Fast forward two years, client has a newly installed Crestron system in the addition that doesn't talk to the Crestron we installed. Mind you this is not a separate house, it's the new east wing. And we're being asked to extend our phone sys to the new area (which is woefully under wired). And... we continue to maintain the original portion of the home.

I'm pissed. But I've tried to take the high road. Client pays every invoice on time. I ask, how big is my ego?