How to say no to a job that is not worth doing

The job that ate a summer

I took a remodel I should have walked away from. The signs were all there on the first visit.

No general contractor. Three people telling me different things. A budget that had already been spent once on somebody else's work I was expected to inherit and warranty.

I told myself the deposit would carry me through a slow month. It did not. That job ran four months past schedule and ate my best tech. I was too buried to call anybody back, so I lost two referrals.

The deposit was gone by week three. The stress lasted until fall.

The signs I watch for now

None of these on its own is a reason to walk. Two or three together and I am out.

• No single decision maker. If two people disagree in front of me on day one, every choice will be a negotiation.
• Somebody else's work I have to warranty. I will service anything. I will not warranty a system I did not build. Not unless I get paid to make it mine first.
• A budget with no room in it. If they are already stretched at the proposal, the first change order becomes a fight.
• No general contractor on a big remodel. Somebody has to sequence twenty trades. If nobody does, the answer is you, and you are not getting paid for it.
• Bad talk about the last guy. Sometimes the last guy was bad. Sometimes it is a pattern. Ask a couple of questions and listen for whether anything was ever their fault.
• Pressure to start before there is a signed scope. That is the surest sign of trouble I know.
• My gut says no on the drive home. I have never once been wrong about this and glad I ignored it.

Price it or pass it, do not split the difference

There are two honest answers to a hard job. One is a price that covers the trouble. The other is no.

The bad answer is the middle: a normal price on a job you already know is not normal. That is how you end up working for nothing and resenting the client for something you did to yourself.

If the job is doable but painful, put the pain in the number. Say why in one line. "This is priced for working around an occupied house and a schedule set by the tile crew."

Some clients will pay it. Those are usually good clients, because they understand what they are asking for.

How to actually say it

Say it fast, say it plain, and give them somewhere to go.

Fast matters. Sitting on a decision for two weeks and then declining is worse than declining on day two. You cost them time.

Plain matters. Do not invent a story about being booked if you are not. People can tell, and it makes the no feel slippery.

Here is roughly what I say. "I do not think we are the right fit for this one. The part that worries me is three people making the calls. I would rather say that now than halfway through. I can give you a couple of names of shops who might be a better fit."

That is it. No lecture. No list of everything wrong with their project.

Leave the door open

A no today is not a no forever. Say that out loud.

Plenty of the jobs I turned down came back later in better shape. Different builder, real budget, one decision maker. They called me back because I had been straight with them the first time.

I also send them somewhere. Not to a shop I dislike, and never as a punishment. To somebody whose work fits that job better than mine.

Never talk down the other guy

When you pass, do not explain it by running down another dealer or builder.

It never lands the way you want. The client hears somebody who is hard to work with. Then they repeat it in that exact shape.

Keep the reason about you and your shop. "This is not our lane" is complete and true and cannot be quoted against you.

What saying no buys you

The year I started turning down two or three jobs, my revenue did not drop. It went up.

Not because saying no is magic. The hours those bad jobs would have burned went into good jobs instead. Faster closeouts, same day callbacks.

The work I want has always come from clients who were treated well. You cannot treat anybody well when you are underwater on a job you knew better than to take.