Ego much?

Well....it was bound to happen.
I've started a folder in my Outlook Express to keep a record, a reminder, of 'reasons why we are picky about who we work with.'
So far, I have two entries.

There will be no Devil/Prada action here - I have no intention of dishing on the people I work with - or don't/won't work with in this case...but I will say that all in all I've been blessed thus far by a multitude of fabulous clients - all of them sincerely kind, fun to work with, very hands-on about their businesses, etc. And for this I thank the universe every day.
When I open my email, no matter how crazy-full some client-specific boxes may become (there are a few who regularly send me upwards of forty to fifty emails per day) I am always more than happy to answer their requests with my full attention and a smile. It sounds corny, but it's the truth - I really and truly like the people that I work with.
This is the case, though, due to careful scrutiny and a keen sense of what types of situations I'm willing to get myself into. It's all about boundaries, and then some...
Just recently I came across a potential client who would have been great (better-than, actually) for both our bank account and our portfolios but it became clear very early on in the interaction that maybe the relationship wouldn't have been so great for our sanity.
This potential client, with all the business in the world to offer a ready and willing web designer/programmer, just didn't have it in her head to communicate with me in a way that made me feel that the relationship would have been worth anything more than dollars and cents - and frankly, we don't do this work for the money.
If we did, we'd have lots of stuffy corporate clients and charge at least three times what we do now.

Instead, we keep it very low key and friendly - a little familial bevy of small-business clients who write their own game plans with pen and paper and keep their own hands in the virtual dirt of their expanding businesses. They deliver their fabulously-manifesting directives with a friendly inquiry into how my personal life is going in this god-forsaken country and how is my darling husband faring on the visa process and I reply in kind and send them flowers and goodies on special occaisions. I actually, truly and really, have sincere love for these people - all of them women, all of them independent and strong as hell, all of them working their butts off to grow something, to achieve something - and depending on us to help the whole process along. I like the collaboration, the reflection on the growth and manifestation in my own life. Their successes are my successes and vice versa - and as such, we all grow together.

I don't know, maybe it's old-school and ridiculous to continue to expect this kind of thing in a business relationship. To hope to adore my clients - but I do, and I will continue to do so because that's what works. That's what keeps me answering the emails that increase exponentially when my back is turned. That's what keeps me doing the work in the first place.

I've got this folder now and its two off kilter little reminders - something to keep me on point about why I hand pick the people with whom we work. These goddesses of the business world literally become a part of my life - and that's a space I will always protect dilligently.