Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Total Profit podcast, the show where we help business owners cut through the noise, tighten up their margins, and run a business that works for them. I am T2, and here with me is the man who's never afraid to say no to bad business. Tommy. Pull.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Hey, hey, hey. If it isn't making margins, I'm out.
Let's go.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Okay, well, today we're talking about one of the hardest things for business owners to do, and that is turning down work.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Saying no can be one of the most profitable decisions you make.
Ever thought of that? But most people say yes out of fear.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Fear.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Fear of losing business, fear of what others may think, fear of slowing down or helping somebody out because they came to you in desperation. So let's walk through this and it is truly your business and you have to protect it, as we said in our prior podcast, like it's one of your own children.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about what happens on the flip side of that when you say yes to every single opportunity, especially the wrong ones.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Exactly. You, you stretch your team too thin. You discount your rates, you overload your schedule, and most importantly, you bury the good work under a pile of bad fits.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Not every dollar, yeah, not every dollar is a good dollar.
Some of them actually cost you more than, than what they bring in.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: So we're going to teach you how to walk through and how to say no to these, these bad spots or bad jobs that, that come upon you. And so let's stick with us and walk through this with us. And here's how you know it's work. You should turn it when you should turn it down. It's like low margin work. And as we've been preaching in our podcast, know your numbers, know your margins, don't waver from your targets, exceed your targets, but don't under, under perform your targets.
Watch out for those high drama clients.
There's a reason that they, they come glaring at you. It's like, maybe I don't, I don't want to do this. So, you know, scope creep is just waiting to happen in some of these situations. So you, you throw in a low number to get the work and it. Your costs just start creeping up. And the other is work outside your core focus or sweet spot. You know what you can do to make money and what you're good at. Stick to it and do it well and price accordingly.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: That scope creep too, I've experienced that before where you agree on a scope of work with a client for a certain price and then they try to Start shoving more stuff into it and say, hey, by the way, can you do this? Or while you're at it, can you do that without talking about any type of a change order or anything to pay for that, for that additional scope of work that some clients try to glean out of you? But overall, I like what you said. If, if your gut feels like. If your gut is telling you that this feels off, you've got to trust that profit and peace usually go together. I want to say that again. Profit and peace usually go together.
I want to share with you a funny story. I had a grandma growing up that was. She was a tiny little thing.
She didn't weigh 80 pounds soaking wet, but she was the matriarch of the family. She was tough as nails. She'd been through a lot in her life, and she was tough, and I loved her dearly. She had a lot of fun sayings that have stuck with me throughout my life. And she was pretty spicy. So fair warning. But one of my favorite things that she used to say is that if it smells like shit, it probably is.
Which, don't shoot the messenger. That's a direct quote.
But it's a really salty way of just saying that, you know, trust your instinct, trust your gut. So I'm going to say it again. If your gut says that this feels off, trust that. Okay. Profit and peace usually go together. If it's the right path for you, you will usually feel a piece about it. And my wise little grandma knew that.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Oh, bless her heart. Yeah. Saying no isn't about arrogance. It's about clarity.
You only have so much time, so much team, and so much capacity within your business to do what you need to do to be profitable. And when you say no to the wrong work, you create space for that right client.
And they're going to benefit from it. And so are you.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And let's be honest. I mean, nobody brags about the job that nearly bankrupted them that they took on just to keep busy. There's no pride in that, nor should there be.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: No, exactly. And there's. There's ways to say no with. Without burning bridges. And we're here to just share some examples with you of, of things that have worked for us professionally in the past. It's like, this isn't a fit for our current focus. But here's a referral. People will come with a solution for the people. And it just really shows that you're. You're genuine in your interest. So the other one is you're currently at capacity and we don't want to compromise. Quality, trust, true statement. Why would you? It isn't worth it. And of course, we'd love to revisit this in the future when timing aligns. So basically you just put the hit the snooze button and let everything filter out and maybe it comes around and things adjust in your favor.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: I love that verbiage. Great professional ways to say no, like you said, without burning the bridge. So it's all about being firm, but respectful.
And don't apologize again. Don't apologize for protecting your margin. It's your business.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. We had one client who kept saying yes to low bids in municipal contracts. You know, the city works, always the sexy work, but barely breaking even. So once we help them run the numbers, they dropped the the bottom 20% of their jobs and they profits doubled in six months.
It was pretty impactful, man.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: It sounds like they didn't just get or they didn't get busier. They did not get busier. They just got better at saying no. But saying no strategically.
All right, here's your total profit challenge for the week. Number one, review your current jobs. Are any of them draining your margin? Take a look at that, please.
And number two, identify any of those that are draining your margin. Those are bad fit red flags.
So call those out. Maybe get out a highlighter and highlight those and then create your go to script. So Tommy gave you some great language and some great verbiage to use, but make it your own. Create your Go to script for saying no with confidence.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And with that. Remember, busy doesn't equal profitability.
Protect your calendar, protect your cash flow. Know your numbers going into these jobs and make them profitable. Focus on that. Target that margin. Target that where we keep preaching and establishing.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: This episode, sponsored again by performance Margin, the software that tells you which jobs are making you money and which ones are bleeding you dry. So if you want to know more about it, reach out to us. We would love to share it with you.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Exactly. And with performance margin software, you can say no with confidence because you know exactly and you have the data to back up what your numbers are and what they need to be.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: It's exactly what the software does for you. It gives you that data, helps you with those with those conversations. I love that.
All right, if you're getting value from the podcast, do us a favor. Subscribe, review, Share with someone who needs to hear this today.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: And until next time, as always, take the cool.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Don't get too excited. It's all under control.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: It's going to be fine.
