Are you in a dysfunctional relationship?

Don’t worry, you haven’t just wandered into an issue of Chat or That’s Life by mistake.

I’m thinking about your relationships with customers, prompted by some of the comments made by Augustus Martin’s Lascelle Barrow in this fascinating interview.

I liked what Las had to say about dealings with clients and print management customers in particular. He said: “If they just want to drive our price down, then we’re happy for them to place it [the work] elsewhere.”

Quite right too. It all comes back to that ability to say “Thanks but no thanks” or just plain “No.”

Unfortunately, like the sort of domestic dramas played out in the aforementioned magazines, some people seem drawn to bad relationships, or unable to extricate themselves from them.

With the New Year looming, and the likelihood of a bit of quiet time over Christmas, now’s as good a time as any to go through that client list and either embark upon the print equivalent of Relate, or decide to divorce yourself from the dysfunctional.