Why it’s Okay to Turn Business Down

You’re an unintentional entrepreneur just getting your business off the ground.  As with any small business, the clients have probably been a little slower in coming to your liking, and your bank account is looking limp and starved for greenbacks. Then a new client comes along. They have a proposition for you, but something isn’t quite right. Maybe the work isn’t something you feel matches your expertise, or the pay is too low, or you Googled the client and found a picture of him enjoying caviar with Bernie Madoff.

It is perfectly acceptable to turn this client’s offer down.

Sure, feelings of guilt may accompany this decision. If you are in dire straits, a proposition like this may seem like a lifeline. But often it those jobs we have initial feelings of trepidation about that turn around and bite us in the end, just as we suspected.

For instance, the time you spend working for a client outside your area of expertise is time that you are not spending gaining experience, references and referrals in your niche. The time you spend working for low pay is time you don’t spend marketing yourself, networking, and writing proposals to clients who actually will pay your going rate. Also, the time you spend working for someone who has a less than stellar track record can hurt your business in two ways – it can hurt your cash flow when you don’t get paid, and it can hurt your reputation to be associated with the client.

So how do you know when a client or gig is going to end up being more trouble than it’s worth? That’s a question you will ultimately have to ask yourself, but the best way to answer that question is to be prepared for the fact that one day someone is going to ask you to do a job you will have trouble accepting.

Here are some tips on preparing for that fateful day:

1. Keep the big picture in mind – Where are you ultimately going with your business? If you were doing the work you love right now, what would that be? Does this questionable project set you on that path, either by giving you experience or building your contact list?
2. Determine whether you can afford it – Sure, some money is better than no money, but your time is valuable, too. Will this project tire you out so much that you can’t market your services to the people who will actually pay your business’s going rate? Place a value on your time, and do not deviate from that value.
3. Stick to your morals and ethics – Some people refuse to work for certain industries or perform certain tasks. We can all think of jobs that are perfectly legal but that we would prefer not to do because we simply have some personal reason not to. Ask yourself if you will be able to sleep at night if you take on this gig.
4. Ask yourself if the project interests you – A project may fit into your area of expertise, pay enough, and mesh nicely with your morals and ethics and still not be a good project for you simply because it’s boring. You’re going to be spending hours, weeks or even years with a project. If the project is boring, that means hours, weeks and years of tedium. Did you start your own business to be bored to death?
5. Ask yourself if you have the time – Small business owners often operate under a “feast or famine” attitude. Even if they have all the business they can handle right now, they never know when the next customer, client or project will show up. This attitude leads to small business owners taking on too much work and then becoming overwhelmed, missing deadlines, or doing poor work. It’s okay to turn down work in this situation. And who knows? Some clients might be willing to wait.

Turning down business is hard, but ultimately the right choice in some situations.

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