We are all nice, by nature. If you are in business, we take that “niceness” to another level where we are almost willing to bend over backwards to please stakeholders, investors, customers, employees, and everyone else associated with the business.
There’s nothing wrong with being nice, except when others begin to take you for granted and take your apparent “niceness” on a wild spin.
You’ll get into more problems as you keep saying “yes” to everything. Learning to say No is the secret to success. Here’s how you can start using the all-too-powerful “No”:
Scope Creep, Discounts? No, Is a No
When working with clients, you’d often see situations when they ask you for “this little thing” and that.
Completed the website? Cool. Can you also write up a couple of blog posts for me?
We need a website developed. However, we don’t have a logo, can you just throw that in?
See where this is going? Just write an email or put it straight out.
“Hi. Thank you for trusting me with your work. The contract clearly points out what we need to deliver. If you’d like us to handle the logo for you, please make the payment using the button/link below”
Devaluation? No, thank you
Your company has a little something. Yearly revenue, profits, branding, and a team. You have assets and you are a “company” — which is something by itself. For startups and when you are a regular business looking to raise loans for working capital, you’ll encounter debtors and/or investors trying to devalue your company a wee bit.
It’s all about negotiations and so go out there and expect this. Go ahead and negotiate. Just don’t accept anything less about you and your business.
Busy? No one gets the time
If you are a small business owner, you are likely to be busy. Yet, everyone wants your time. This is one of those times when you’d have to say no. If they don’t respect your time, they don’t respect you.
Just shoot an email with something like:
“Hey, I’m excited about working with you, but I’m temporarily overbooked, and I may not be able to turn this out as quickly as I’d like”
