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How to turn down work that costs you money

What it costs 6 min read

Some jobs lose money before you arrive, and they have a shape you can learn to spot on the phone. How to see them early and decline without making an enemy.

You said yes on the phone because it is hard to say anything else while somebody is describing their problem.

Three weeks later you are at that address for the fourth time, the last visit was unpaid, and the job you actually wanted went to somebody who had a free Tuesday. Nobody behaved badly. You just took a job that was going to cost you from the first call.

The jobs that lose money have a shape

They look different from each other and are the same underneath.

The small job an hour away, where the drive is longer than the work. The job just outside what you do, where you will be slower than a specialist and carry the risk anyway. The one where nobody can tell you what "finished" means, so it will be finished when the customer says so. The one where two trades already walked away. The one where you are the fourth quote and the previous three are all being played against each other.

And the one that arrives already tense, because the customer has fallen out with somebody before you. That is not a warning about them as a person. It is a warning that you are walking into the second half of a story you did not see the start of.

The cost that never lands on the invoice

The reason these jobs are hard to spot is that most of what they cost you is not in the price of the work.

There is the drive, both ways, twice, when something goes wrong. The phone calls, in the evening. The return visit for the part nobody could have predicted. The invoice you chase for two months and discount in the end to make it stop.

While you are doing this job you cannot do another one, and the job you did not take is a real loss even though it never appears anywhere.

Decide the rules once, when nobody is asking

You cannot make this decision well in the middle of a phone call, with a customer waiting and the sound of your own voice already saying yes.

So decide it in advance, on paper, when it is quiet. How far you will travel. The smallest job worth turning out for. The kinds of work you do not do, named specifically. Whether you take work on a property you have not seen. Whether you ask for anything up front on a large job.

Written rules do two things. They make the answer available at speed, and they let you decline as policy rather than as a judgement about the person on the phone, which is easier to say and easier to hear.

Spot it on the phone, not after the quote

The expensive version of a no is the one you deliver after driving out, looking at it, and writing a quote in the evening. Do the filtering during the first call.

Four questions do most of the work. Where is it. What exactly do you want done. When do you need it. And has anybody else looked at it already.

That last question is the most useful. The answer is either no, which is fine, or an account of what happened with the last trade, which tells you more than any amount of guessing.

Listen to the answers rather than the tone. Pleasant people bring difficult jobs, and abrupt people bring straightforward ones.

How to say no so that nobody resents it

Say it early, say it in one sentence, and give a reason that is about you rather than about them.

"That is outside what I do, so I would not be the right one for it." "I do not get out that far, sorry." "I am booked until the middle of next month and you will want it done sooner than that."

Three things to avoid. Do not go quiet and hope, because the silence gets remembered longer than a no. Do not invent a reason, because your town is smaller than it looks. And do not soften it into a maybe, because a maybe means you get the follow up call on Thursday and have to do this again.

Nearly everybody takes a plain no well. What they resent is a week of waiting for one.

A real price is a softer no than a no

If a job is possible but difficult, quote what it would actually cost you to do it properly, including the parts you would usually absorb.

That is not a made up number to frighten somebody off. It is the true price of a job that carries risk, travel and uncertainty, and the reason it feels aggressive is only that you have been eating those costs on other jobs.

One condition: be ready for them to say yes. If a price you named turns into a job you resent, you underpriced a hard job. Only quote a number you would be content to do the work for.

Hand it to somebody who wants it

The job that is wrong for you is often exactly right for somebody else. The small job an hour away is somebody's local job. The work outside your line is somebody's whole line.

Passing it on takes twenty seconds and does three things. The customer gets helped, so the call ends well. The other trade gets work from you, which is the only referral arrangement that needs no paperwork. And you say no without leaving somebody stuck, which is the version people remember.

Only pass work to somebody whose work you would put your own name to, because for the next two weeks your name is on it.

When the no comes back as a bad review

Somebody you never worked for leaves a review about being turned away, which stings precisely because you did nothing wrong.

Reply once, briefly and without heat. Say what you do, say it was outside that, and say you hope they got it taken care of. Anybody reading it later is judging your reply far more than the complaint, and arguing under it undoes that in two sentences.

What to have decided before the next call comes in

Write these down once and keep them where you take calls.

Questions people ask

How do I say no without sounding rude?

Answer quickly, in one sentence, and give a reason about your own capacity or trade rather than about their job. Speed is most of the politeness.

Should I quote a high price instead of saying no?

Only at a number you would be happy to work for. A price meant to scare somebody off sometimes gets accepted, and then you are doing the job at a price you chose in bad faith.

What if I need the work?

Then take it with your eyes open, and be precise about the scope, the price and what is not included. A difficult job you understood in advance is a completely different experience from one you drifted into.

How do I turn down a job for a friend or family member?

Early and honestly, before anything starts. Say you would rather not mix it, and offer them a name. Doing the job badly resentfully costs the relationship far more than declining it does.

What do I do about the customer who has already fallen out with two trades?

Ask what happened, listen to the whole answer, and decide from that. Sometimes the previous trades really were the problem. Often the story tells you exactly why you will be the third name in it.

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