How (and Why) to Avoid Unreliable Business Partners

(Imagen 4)

Is there an easy way to detect potential business partners to avoid?

There are reliable business partners, and unreliable ones. 

I’d like to share my thoughts on how to gravitate toward the former and away from the latter, and why this is critically important to your business.

What is a reliable business partner?

We all work with a variety of business partners: clients, prospects, vendors, agents, evangelists, and the like.

Some business partners are really good at:

• Paying you. On time, or even early; Bredemarket has enjoyed working with 2 clients with “net 0” terms.
• Setting expectations. While Bredemarket has its own system for kicking off a project, things work even more smoothly when a client answers your questions before you ask them.
• Communicating with you. Outside of a project in work, partners who take the time to communicate with you are valuable. Maybe the communication is “check back in a few months.” Or perhaps the communication is “Sorry, but we have no need for Bredemarket’s services.” Even the latter is valuable.
• Keeping in touch with you. Some partners go above and beyond the minimum. For example, an executive at one of my clients would check in with me and ask, is everything OK? Are we paying you on time?

When business partners pay you, set expectations, communicate with you, and keep in touch with you, you know that you can rely on them.

What is an unreliable business partner?

On the other hand, some business partners are really “good” at:

• Not paying you. This one’s obvious.
• Not setting expectations. Have you ever had a client who was vague about what they wanted, saying, “I’ll know it when I see it?” And then…they don’t see it.
• Ghosting you. In the consulting world, you often get a prospect’s urgent and seemingly important request for services. When you respond to the prospect’s questions, you never hear from them again. Apparently that urgent request was not that important after all.

After you pull these shenanigans on me, I quietly brand you as unprofessional…and unreliable.

How to avoid unreliable business partners

So how do you avoid the unreliable business partners? Here are three tips:

1. Communicate your expectations. Take the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service as an example. I clearly communicate that I only offer 2 review cycles, you respond with comments in 3 calendar days, and you pay me $500 (as of June 2025) within 15 calendar days. (And some consultants insist that I should collect money up front.)  And if you don’t meet my expectations, I gently let you know.
2. Expect communications. If someone says they will get back with you by a certain date, follow up. Maybe not on the exact date, but remind them what they said. But after a couple of these reminders with no response…
3. Don’t pursue lost causes. Many of us hold out hope for too long, reliving the movie quote “so you’re telling me there’s a chance.” Bredemarket has hundreds of contacts in its CRM, but the majority are flagged as inactive because there’s no longer a chance. If they subsequently reach out to me…we’ll see.

Why to avoid unreliable business partners

Obviously you don’t want to deal with unreliable people, but why should you be so proactive that the unreliable people avoid you altogether?

At Bredemarket, I continuously return to the topic of focus (ubiquity or docking or whatever). And if I focus on attracting reliable business partners, and convey that the unreliable ones should stay away, then Bredemarket’s reputation as a quality provider will be enhanced.

And the people that want me to halve my prices can go to Fiverr…or ChatGPT.