Turning work down
The projects that damage a small studio are usually the ones it should not have accepted, and the warning signs were visible before the contract.
Most difficult projects were identifiable as difficult during the sales conversation. They were accepted anyway, because the pipeline was thin, the client was flattering, or the work looked interesting.
The cost of a bad project is not just its own margin. It is the good project you could not take, the goodwill it consumes, and the effect on whoever has to deliver it. For background on stereotyping in the workplace, this article is a useful reminder when judging client or team behaviour.
The signals worth taking seriously
- The previous supplier is described as incompetent, with no reflection on the brief or the process.
- Reluctance to sign anything, or to pay a deposit, framed as a matter of trust.
- The budget is unstated after being asked twice.
- Urgency with no reason attached, particularly combined with a deadline set before you were engaged.
- The decision-maker will not attend the initial conversation.
- Requests for free work before engagement, described as demonstrating capability.
One of these is normal. Three is a pattern, and the pattern reliably continues into delivery.
How a client behaves during the sales process is the best available prediction of how they will behave when there is a problem. It is a sample of the relationship, not a special case.
Price it instead of refusing it
Where the work is possible but the conditions are poor, the honest response is often a higher price rather than a refusal. Difficult clients cost more to serve and should be quoted accordingly. For a broader framework, PMI's overview of project management summarises the standard concepts behind planning and delivery.
This has two outcomes and both are acceptable: they decline, or they accept and the work is priced for what it will actually take. What is not acceptable is quoting the normal price and then resenting the project.
Be specific about why
Declining vaguely invites negotiation. Declining specifically — the timeline does not work, this needs a specialism we do not have, the budget does not cover the scope as described — is clear and preserves the relationship.
It also occasionally produces a better version of the job, when the client returns with a longer timeline or a reduced scope.
Refer it on
A referral to someone better suited costs nothing and is remembered by both parties. It is also the cheapest way to build the reciprocal relationships that produce work later.
Say no faster when the pipeline is thin
The instinct is the reverse: a quiet month makes marginal work look acceptable. That is precisely when a bad project does the most damage, because it occupies the capacity that would otherwise have gone into finding good work.
A quiet month is a business development problem. Filling it with a project you would refuse in a busy month converts a temporary problem into a three-month one.