Saying “No” to Projects

Having just started my business, I feel very fortunate to be as busy as I am. I have chased down clients and made cold calls. I have gone to trade expos and networking meetings. I found clients I want to work for and spoke to them. It has not always been successful, but I have learned something from every single client meeting.

When starting a business, the goal is to find a few clients and land projects. This generally leads to the tendency to accept every single project available, no matter how intricate or straightforward, and regardless of the money involved (if you’re lucky, there’s discussion of money). While eagerness to work on new projects is key to growing a business, rushing yourself to find “just any” client and take on “just any” project can be unhealthy for both you and your business.

Learning to spot these potentially dud projects, and, more importantly, learning to say “no” to these projects can be rather challenging.

This is something that I have struggled with, as I love saying yes to exciting projects, interesting work and new challenges. If I had an infinite amount of time and resources, I would definitely take on so much more work. I want to be able to do loads of different things and learn about other industries and businesses.

But because time is finite and I can’t do everything, I have had to learn to say “no”. I only decline for very good reason, otherwise I do what I can to accommodate the project.

Here are a few tips to help you make your decision.

When to think twice about new work:

When your regular, steady work would suffer

If you have built up a few good relationships with clients and there is a consistent stream of work every month, this is a great position to be in. If an opportunity for a new project comes up, and you feel it would interfere in a huge way with your current monthly plan, it’s important to weigh up all your options.

If the pay is far less than what you feel the work warrants

This is quite an important one. If you feel that a project will take a certain amount of time (including revisions – because, let’s be real, there are always revisions), but your client doesn’t feel that it will take that long, try to negotiate a better project rate. You don’t want to be stuck on a project for 3 weeks when the client thought it would take 4 days and their budget isn’t budging.

If you don’t have time

Only you know your work schedule and your life schedule. If you know that your life is rather busy (even if you’re busy with other things, like family commitments, personal projects, or other interests), and the new project doesn’t thrill you enough to compromise on your usual commitments, then perhaps you can let this one go.

If the project doesn’t thrill you

This is the last consideration because sometimes you don’t have the option but to take jobs that don’t excite you in any way. Bills need to be paid. But, if you have enough work to keep you busy for this month and projects planned into the next few months, then you can breathe a bit easier. So when a potential opportunity arises that doesn’t fill you with glee, you can politely decline with confidence.

Conclusion

When you do indeed have the opportunity to say no to projects, you can feel just a tiny bit pleased with yourself that your business is growing. But never feel smug – that’s just not a good look on anyone.