Work on the 'take the firing well' part. Letting someone go despite whatever issues are at hand should be a way to look for a win-win situation. A former staff

Work on the 'take the firing well' part. Letting someone go despite whatever issues are at hand should be a way to look for a win-win situation. A former staff member that feels let down or mistreated will talk about your company in negative terms, which for a company of 20 people is going to be a fairly significant risk even with the PII. An ideal situation is that you're getting rid of a B player that isn't a good fit for your company's future. You want him to talk to A players he knows positively and suggest that they would work well at your company despite it not being right for him.