Page 88 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

priced it and there was no one to project manage it. The product was bespoke. We didn’t have the knowledge. We were now having project overruns. The client is not happy and could see that their client would not be happy. We should have just said no. We did recover the situation and finally met their deadline, but it sowed doubts about our company in the client’s mind.
Another situation we had was with a national client, but through our better cost accounting, we realised there was no money in the work. The management of it was costing more than the margin. I said we had to get out of there and delegated a senior manager to execute it: go see, explain and find a solution so they have a continuation of work (e.g. another supplier). Well, it wasn’t executed very well but that’s another story. They were not happy that we said no. But saying no was the right thing to do. It was a double whammy benefit in that we stopped losing money in that channel and now we were not incurring all these management and administration costs, freeing people up to do other, more profitable things.
Experience tells you to say no. It’s the things you don’t do in life that make you successful. I wish I had said no more often, as the company would have been more profitable.
Saying no can be hard, especially to your clients. Later on in my business career, and I admit, after too many years, I started to be more successful at knocking the entrepreneur out of me and saying no. It