Small Business Lesson - Sometimes You Just Have to Say No!
What happens if you take on more work than your small business can handle right now? We all like to please and avoid confrontation.
So when a new potential customer comes to you with some work and you are completely overloaded are you prone to take on more than you can handle at the time? Are you letting the fear of losing this new potential customer and the work that they bring to your small business, get in the way of your better judgment?As small business owners particularly in today's tough economic times, we all would like to take on as much work as we can handle.
However, if it means taking on this extra work and not having a clue whether you can fulfill this new order, then perhaps this may not be a sound business practice.
If you are not able to perform the work in the agreed upon time, then this new customer will be disappointed.
Alternatively the existing order that you were already working on right now has to take a backseat in favor of the new order will not be completed on time, making that client unhappy too.
Either way someone is not going to be pleased with the service levels of your small business.
I am sure that we all have been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment at some time or another.
I can think of many times when I have scheduled to have some work carried out on my home and have been kept waiting, only to get an apology later on in the day.
In the meantime, one starts to wonder whether you made the right choice of tradesperson in the first place.
After all, if they cannot even arrive on the agreed upon day, then what should one expect of their level of workmanship? Dissatisfied customers are not good for the reputation of any business.
Surely it would be better to be honest with your client or customer and perhaps reschedule the work if it is not too urgent? Most customers are very understanding and rescheduling for a more suitable time, should not be a major issue.
When the customer cannot reschedule the work and the work is required more urgently, have a backup plan.
Perhaps offer the customer an alternative instead, that will still satisfy them today.
Get in contact with another business in the same industry and form a loose association, to take over this extra workload when your business is just too busy to take on the work.
Hopefully this will be a reciprocal agreement that you can take on extra work of theirs when they are too busy as well.
So if you are helping each other out over time it is beneficial to both businesses.
Reciprocating ensures that neither your business nor this other business loses out on work.
Obviously if you are handing out your extra work on a constant basis to other businesses, then it may be time to start hiring extra hands to cope with the added workload.
So when a new potential customer comes to you with some work and you are completely overloaded are you prone to take on more than you can handle at the time? Are you letting the fear of losing this new potential customer and the work that they bring to your small business, get in the way of your better judgment?As small business owners particularly in today's tough economic times, we all would like to take on as much work as we can handle.
However, if it means taking on this extra work and not having a clue whether you can fulfill this new order, then perhaps this may not be a sound business practice.
If you are not able to perform the work in the agreed upon time, then this new customer will be disappointed.
Alternatively the existing order that you were already working on right now has to take a backseat in favor of the new order will not be completed on time, making that client unhappy too.
Either way someone is not going to be pleased with the service levels of your small business.
I am sure that we all have been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment at some time or another.
I can think of many times when I have scheduled to have some work carried out on my home and have been kept waiting, only to get an apology later on in the day.
In the meantime, one starts to wonder whether you made the right choice of tradesperson in the first place.
After all, if they cannot even arrive on the agreed upon day, then what should one expect of their level of workmanship? Dissatisfied customers are not good for the reputation of any business.
Surely it would be better to be honest with your client or customer and perhaps reschedule the work if it is not too urgent? Most customers are very understanding and rescheduling for a more suitable time, should not be a major issue.
When the customer cannot reschedule the work and the work is required more urgently, have a backup plan.
Perhaps offer the customer an alternative instead, that will still satisfy them today.
Get in contact with another business in the same industry and form a loose association, to take over this extra workload when your business is just too busy to take on the work.
Hopefully this will be a reciprocal agreement that you can take on extra work of theirs when they are too busy as well.
So if you are helping each other out over time it is beneficial to both businesses.
Reciprocating ensures that neither your business nor this other business loses out on work.
Obviously if you are handing out your extra work on a constant basis to other businesses, then it may be time to start hiring extra hands to cope with the added workload.
