Two letters can sometimes be the hardest word to say in business. Saying “No” can make you feel like you’re missing out on money, opportunities, and great chances.
But No can potentially be the most important word you can utter in business. Here are some reasons to practice your No till it comes just as easily as yes.
Say No to difficult clients
Difficult customers or clients come in a variety of types. For instance, the client who has plenty to spend, but demands endless samples, designs, or extra work done – even just to decide whether they’re going to become your client or not.
There are clients who demand the impossible – they definitely need to be told no. Particularly if they demand you drop everything to attend to them, but when you need work approved, will leave you waiting for days.
Then there are the clients you just don’t want to work with – perhaps you feel their industry conflicts with your values. Or they’re unpleasant on a more personal level – they treat your staff badly, openly espouse attitudes which aren’t appropriate, or are fundamentally unpleasant people.
You can, and should, say a big No to all these clients.
Say No to extra work when you’re at capacity
It can be very tempting, when a good customer comes along with a decent order, to try to squeeze them in even if you’re already booked up. Resist this urge. No matter what people say, your business can be too busy.
Working yourself into the ground leads to poor results not only for that customer, but for all your other ones as well. Saying yes in this situation could cost you more than you make in the long run.
And beyond just working yourself into the ground, if you are habitually running your staff into the ground, good employees will burn out and leave.
If you do find you’re saying no for this reason a lot, that’s when you should be increasing your capacity so you can start saying yes again.
Say No to working for free
This is particularly important for freelancers and new enterprises. There are a lot of places which will ask you to do work in exchange for “exposure”. If you think it will genuinely help you to have them on your client list, then go for it. But remember that not only does exposure not pay the bills – you tend to get exposed to people who will want you to do more work for free.
The hardest situation is often when community groups or non-profit organisations ask for free work. Yes, you should be as generous as possible with your community, particularly if they are your major customer base. However, if you’re repeatedly being asked to provide your services for nothing, ask why your work is valuable enough to need but not valuable enough to pay for.
Say No to working outside your area of expertise
If your business is asked to work outside your area of expertise that can be a good way of expanding your services… Or it could be an expensive exercise in frustration with a sub-optimal outcome for both you and your client. Extra training, missed deadlines, and false starts are a feature of this kind of work.
Along with this, any staff member should work within their own area of expertise – even if you’re the boss. Although plenty of clients (especially difficult ones) will decide they want to deal with the organ grinder, not the monkey, if the monkey is the one with the skills to do the work, that’s who your customer should be dealing with.