Learning When to Say No
We’ve all said yes to freelance gigs that, in retrospect, we wish we’d said no to. Bad clients, bad pay, bad projects. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
We’ve also had great projects that make us thank goodness we’re freelancers: jobs that cause us to look upon the poor 9 to 5 lemmings with a mixture of pity and smugness.
But how do we tell the difference between the good projects and the bad projects? When the phone rings with a new gig our first instinct is to say yes, but how do we ensure that we’re making a wise decision?
There is a simple rule of thumb you can use to determine which jobs to take, and which to turn down. Consider these three factors:
- Will it advance your career/have networking benefit?
- Will you earn decent money?
- Will it be fun?
We all have our own definitions of what constitutes career advancement, decent money, or fun. I won’t attempt to define those for you.
But I will tell you what you can do the next time a potential client calls with a job.
Keep these three factors in the back of your mind as you talk to your potential client. The more you learn, the more you’ll see if the project actually does offer career advancement or decent money or fun.
And if a job looks like it will offer at least TWO of the above, it’s probably worth taking.
Career advancement and fun = probably worth taking.
Career advancement and decent money = probably worth taking.
Decent money and fun = probably worth taking.
If it offers only ONE of the above, it’s probably best to leave it for the next guy.
And of course, if it offers all THREE, then jump on it. Quickly!
Seems too simple to be effective? Try testing it against your own freelance experience.
Think back to some of the good, bad, and ugly projects in your freelancing past, and apply this rule of thumb to them.
You’ll probably find there is a correlation. The best jobs offered two or three benefits, and the worst offered one or (gasp) none.
Now, remember that this is only a rule of thumb. It is helpful as a starting point, but of course it is not the only thing to consider when making a decision.
Sometimes, one factor can outweigh all the others.
For example if you’re just starting out in the film business and you get an offer:
Making coffee for $8 an hour: Decent money = No, Fun = No.
But you’re making coffee for Stephen Spielberg: Career advancement/networking = YES!
Suddenly the rule of thumb does not apply. “Milk and sugar, Mr. Spielberg?”
But I’d be willing to bet that these sorts of situations are few and far between.
Most of the time, you’ll talk to your potential client, compare the job against the three factors, and be able to make your decision quickly and easily.
Part of being successful is knowing when to say “No thanks”. Saying no to some jobs keeps you available for better jobs, jobs that allow you to focus on what’s right for you as you build your long-term freelance career.
Here’s hoping all your jobs are threes…
Mark Dugas is a producer and editor of documentary films, the devoted father of two young boys, a decent snowboarder and mountain-biker, and one hell of a nice guy.
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Right on. This is pretty much my exact same philosophy on how to evaluate any job. (although I usually apply it to a full-time role rather than a single project). My only change is that I’d substitute “fun” with creatively fulfilling. Work is work, and sometimes the best projects in our portfolio weren’t at all fun. Still, you’re glad to have em.
It’s the balance between personal, professional, and creative. Imagine the three as a triangle; for different situations, the triangle will take a slightly different shape, and you have to find a way to pull it back to your ideal, to achieve balance.
Unfortunately for me, I found myself in a position where I wasn’t moving ahead from any of the criteria. Shit pay, no networking, bad creative. I left after ten months, but should have split after ten days.
Mark, this is so true! It’s rare that you’ll find all three (esp. early in your career), but two out of three ain’t bad. Now that you’ve so clearly articulated what I sort of knew but hadn’t fully formulated in my own mind, I will keep this in mind when I’m considering future projects.
I needed this post, I sometimes have trouble saying no to clients.
Usually I deal with small business clients, so question #1 doesn’t usually apply to me. However, I will always start asking myself the other two questions before saying anything to a client.
When it comes to prospects its my gut that makes the ultimate decision in taking on projects.
It is harder to follow this advice with the economy continuing to tank, but it is now more important than ever to do so! You might find yourself saying ‘yes’ to smaller gigs that you would otherwise pass on… just to pay the bills. However, this will ultimately get you in more trouble than it is worth. You should always consider the “opportunity cost” of accepting crappy gigs. For example, if you take on several low paying gigs without asking yourself the three questions above, you risk not having the capacity to take on higher paying gigs when they come around. We’ve all been there… just because a gig is low paying doesn’t mean that it is low maintenance! I’d rather have one solid gig than three little “pains in the…” Well, you get my point.
Something I always consider is “how easy is this client to work with?” I guess it goes along with fun. Sometimes I get a feeling, either through rumor or intuition, that a particular client is going to be difficult to deal with. If I sense that, I might quote the project really high. That way if they don’t accept my bid, great. Saved myself some hassle. If they hire me, great. I have some extra cash to ease my pain.
I find as long as you are able to churn out a project that gives good results, you can almost always get all three points down. The getting a “fun” project part seems to be the most difficult though. In the end, you can always ask the client for a testimonial on what the project did for them, which can be used to expand your blog/website. If the client wants to pay $xx dollars, but you want $xxx dollars, ask them to reconsider their price or they may need a different freelancer. The idea that a project isn’t fun is just some silly programming in your head. With a little guidance, you can trick your brain into making it fun even if you are writing about the mating process of Galapagos tortoises.
Justin Dupre
http://justindupre.com
Learning how/when to say no is one of the most important things you can do for your sanity. i can’t tell you how many times i WISH i had said no. And i agree with Eric on the extra $$. if it’s not a great, fun, career advancing job, then at least if you ask for extra money, it helps ease the pain.
Great post! A similar formula I try (and I stress “try”) to use when deciding whether to accept work is:
1. Does it appeal to my passion?
2. Is the money good?
3. Do I have enough time to complete the work?
2 out of 3 and it’s a yes!
These are some great tips; it’s hard especially if you are struggling financially to determine which jobs are for you and which ones aren’t.
Another tip that has worked well for my wife and I is to maintain a certain tone on our website/blog. My wife can be a very funny writer, and she also swears on our site. Not only has that helped us to get subscribers who like her writing style, it has helped us to vet clients. If they are turned off by her writing style then they are probably not the type of people we will work well with.
I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone, but I guess my point is develop your own style that is close to your personality. That way potential clients already feel like they know you a bit, and the ones that are turned off by your style are the ones who probably wouldn’t work out anyway. Of course it won’t be 100% and there is no way for us to know ow many people we’ve turned off who may have worked as clients, but I can say that we have not had too many jobs we’ve regretted. Just my two cents.
this is absolutely correct, the need to be able to say no. i must say that even after years in the industry I still have this issue and I know I’m not alone on this one. It is a hard skill to learn probably harder then learn the design it self hehee. The 3 things in projects is a great idea and it defiantly helps narrow down the project. I will try to use this concept more often for both freelance and full time work. I do agree with Justin Dupre that a project will also have a positive feeling on you and can be fun when result is successful. Thank you for this post its defiantly a very useful one to both beginners and advance designer.
When it comes to working with small businesses, you never really KNOW the networking benefit. I’ve taken jobs with clients who are one man shows, working out of their homes and gotten nothing, and then I’ve taken jobs where they tell everyone and their mom about you…and 3 new clients come on board! It’s hard to say who will be beneficial to your networking and career advancement and who won’t.
Also, before you’ve worked with someone, it’s hard to know if it’s going to be fun. Even if you’re working on something fantastic like Extreme Sports (if that’s your thing) it’s hard to have fun if the client keeps asking you to move your design a millimeter to the left.
The only thing you really know is the money- and whether or not you have time to do it.
These questions above may apply to full time contractual or professional gigs- but I think a better way to decide how to take a new design project is:
1. A gut feeling about the client and their motivation/success quotient (are they going to follow through, need more business, become fruitful and successful or are they totally flaky)
2. Can they and will they be able to pay for what they want? (or are they already trying to scale down the project after seeing the estimate. i.e. less web pages or b/w instead of color)
3. Do they respect and value what you do and the service you offer?
4. Will you learn a new skill or advance the skills you already have?
5. Can you work with this person without wanting to kill them and/or yourself?
If you can look at these questions and feel comfortable with the answers, then take the project.
Great post about something we all should probably learn to do a little better. Maybe if bad clients/projects get turned down by enough designers they’ll start to figure out that they should change something!
But I really like what Eric said too about trying to see if clients will be easy to work with. Clients that don’t respond for weeks or that want endless revisions can ruin everything good about a project.
Yep. Yep.
I gotta say, Spielberg does not want the Coffee Dude’s script, that’s for sure, and Coffee Dude will get fired for trying to give it to him. The Spielbergs of the world have way too many people bombarding them. Where the networking comes in that scenario is that in 5 years, Coffee Dude’s buddy in the Mailroom is now the hottest director in town and just so happens to love Coffee Dude and his funny stories, so they collaborate.
Often, the best opportunities come from where you are not looking, from either people who know and appreciate you, or from strangers who don’t know enough to not like you. *wink*
My question is… How do you politely say no to a client?
Usually, you can get a feel for a project at the proposal stage and you can tell from the outset that this is going to be troublesome. When this happens the price goes up dramatically.
But what do you do a month later when they call you back and say “we’ve decided to accept your proposal!” How do you back out of it?
I’ve even said to clients that I can’t get to their project for 4 to 5 months hoping they will go somewhere else and I still can’t get rid of them!
Ugh. GUILTY!
Only a handful of times have I recognized the red flags and backed out. I only say no due to the sheer overwhelming feel of taking on yet another project (and I really shouldn’t let it get that far). I just get to a point where something’s got to give, and the first project that gives me an inkling of trouble gets the axe.
As for letting down clients gently, my favorite phrase is “Sorry, but I’m no longer available for this project.” It’s something they can’t argue or push – hasn’t failed me yet.
One neat thing about having your rates listed on your website is that you really minimize the amount of clients who aren’t willing to pay what you deserve. When I say no it’s usually due to busyness rather than the price being too low. Though I did have to say no quite a bit when I was primarily a freelance writer. I never really found it hard because I had limited time then, and only so much inspiration to write.
I have a slightly different philosophy… I never say “no” to a client. What I do is figure out how much it would cost for me to happily say “yes.” One of 2 things happens when you take this approach: 1) You become too expensive for this particular job and the “double your rate” rules start to kick in, or 2) You make enough money to put up with all the BS your client puts you through.
Either way, you win!
Never say no!
I agree with Brad and Eric, right now Im feeling I probably should’ve asked myself “will the client be easy to work with?”, instead of “will I be able to do this?”; there was a bit of a fun part to it though, ’cause I learned PHP just for the purpose of doin that job (so the answer was “yes, I will”), now that I ate a couple books and internet websites the only problem is not the programming itself, but the client’s never ending revisions.
Also, recently I had a gig where I was meant to do some modifications on a nearly finished Adobe Flash interactive thingy, and the client (that hired me as freelancer before) wanted me to finish the job in 2 days; I obvioulsly trippled the price for the gig, and he hasnt called me back since (haha). Which is obviously good.
I think sometimes it helps to raise your rates; you either feel a bit better, just like GroovyBrent said “you make enough money to put up with all the BS your client puts you through” but there’s times when money is not enough! you are just too tired to continue with that client, and the whole gig is a pain the arse
“will the client be easy to work with?” FTW!
GroovyBrent–I never thought of it that way…BRILLIANT! A philosophy I have instantly adopted. Although what I have been doing which complements your approach nicely is to develop a timeline for such projects that works for ME according to what I call the “pain in the ass factor”. The nicer the client, the quicker the turnaround. When things start getting unreasonable, I always request longer deadlines. If I know I’m working with a real headache, I want to extend the amount of time between dealings with the cause of my migrane.
What a FANTASTIC blog! Great advice. Those are the criteria I *try* to use, but sometimes I “chicken out” and take lower paying gigs because I’m afraid I won’t get something better. Or, something turns out to be not as much fun as I thought it might be, or less money than I thought it would be because it takes longer than expected.
Thanks everybody for your great comments!
GroovyBrent, that’s an interesting way to look at it. Although I don’t agree that you should never say no. People who are at the top of their fields say no to things every day. One high-end film editor once told me that he knew he had “made it” when he was turning down more jobs than he was accepting.