Dear Service Professional,

As we (hopefully) move away from the Great Recession you may be seeing inquiries, albeit tentative. They’re interested in your landscaping/consulting/tutoring services, but they don’t want to spend that much so they ask you if you can scale back your proposal.

Don’t do it.

I speak from previous experience. Actually, my previous experience has previous experience. In fact, I’m writing this blog post to remind my future self not to sell half a web design, half an internet marketing campaign, or half of a social media consult to anyone who asks.

It’s not that I’m a jerk. Let me rephrase that. It’s not because I’m a jerk. It’s because of this:

If you run your own business and you know what you’re doing then you have put in a lot of time and effort into creating an offering that works. Giving someone half of that project does neither of you any good. It’s not like a pizza that can be evenly split; it’s more like a half-cooked pizza that no one wants to eat.

Here’s why you want to say no:

1. Your customer will be frustrated because “they spent all this money and they didn’t get what they expected.”
2. You will be frustrated because you ended up putting in a lot more work than you agreed to. (It inevitably turns out that you can’t complete even a half-assed project in half the time, because you can’t halve the amount of time it takes to do proper project management, administrative tasks or billing. Nor can you halve the time it takes to deal with an upset customer; see point number one.)
3. And perhaps most importantly: You can’t give only half the years of experience and knowledge you’re bringing to the project. (Can I get an “amen?”)
   

Chances are, you’ll get some push back if you tell them you can’t scale back your project. I often ask what would it be like if they offered their customers half a job? If that doesn’t work I ask them if they ever would drive just half a car? Wear half a pair of pants? Or get half an appendectomy?

If I get a smile, or at least a acknowledging grunt, I explain that I’m not looking for disappointed customers. I’ve been down this road before, and for us to do a job we’re proud of and the customer is happy with, it’s going to require our full effort.

It’s never easy to say no to a job, especially in these economic times. But if you stick to your guns you’ll get 1/3 to 1/2 of those jobs, and when you do a kick-ass job, they’ll tell their friends and associates the whole story, making it even easier to convince those people that they want you to put your full effort into that job.

Rich Brooks
Fully Engaged