Clients who can't keep appointments

Another thing I could do without this month is clients who are unable to keep appointments. We all have them.  

What's wrong with these people? Can't they organise their lives? I have about half a dozen clients who I know will virtually always cancel their appointments at the last minute. In a couple of cases I don't even record appointments they make in my diary in the first place – I know they will cancel later.

I have even told them this - and they just shrug. Curiously, these include some of my higher-earning sole traders, highly gifted individuals who are great by themselves - but absolutely hopeless when they try to grow their business beyond a one-man/woman show, so I have to tactfully discourage their hare-brained notions of business growth and world domination.

It's a shame, because I also have clients who are great managers but not cut out to be entrepreneurs. If only I could get the two groups together. 

In the meantime I have a couple of these unreliable types who have yet to come in to finish their 2009 tax returns. I can see this going all the way to midnight on 31st again!