Next Business Level

When to say no? I don’t know about you, but I’m having a pretty busy 1Q so far – lots of meetings and a number of opportunities for both my staffing and consulting businesses. With the downturn in the economy (and subsequent downturn in the bottom line), my instincts are to say yes to every opportunity.

Because you never know what doors a “yes” will open up. But my people sometimes think differently – they want to say yes to the right opportunity. We’ve had a number of discussions about this as an organization – when to say yes and when to say no.

Here’s an example – As an operations-based consultant, I’m known for holding my clients accountable. After all, what is the value of a plan of attack that’s not executed? My end goal is to make sure my client is successful – their success adds to my bottom line.

I’m not in the business of pipe dreams – I’m in the business of progress. And progress is only the result of

effort. But what if, for whatever reason, a client doesn’t want to put in the effort?

As a consultant, I’m here to serve my client. I have no problems rolling up my sleeves and helping out to make sure things get done when needed. But sometimes that crosses the line from consulting into actually running their business. Which is fine until I’m spending all my time running their business instead of running my own. At what point do you say enough is enough? When is your time better spent elsewhere?

This is what I’ve been discussing internally in my own organization. We only have so much time and so many resources – how do we make the best use of them? How do we qualify an opportunity? When do we fire clients?

So what do you think – when do you say no?