What would happen to your business results if you just said “no” a little more often?

Building business demands that you, as the solo professional, wear many hats. In wearing all of these hats, you are probably saying a lot of yesses: “Yes, I can do this”; “Yes, I can do that!” The list goes on.

Yet, what would happen to your business results if you just said “no” a little more often?

Sometimes we need to just say “no” to this or that especially when those things are not necessarily important in your efforts to build your business.

But, you may be thinking, I cannot afford to say “no” because that would mean I would have to pay someone else to say “Yes I can do that!”

The Cost of Yes

Let’s take a few quick moments to learn what all those yesses are costing you. If your business revenue or sales goal is $100,000, then what is the value of each minute?

By presuming you work 50 hours each week, then each week you should be generating $2,000 each week or $50 per hour.

When you are saying yes to all those things from running to the bank, the post office, etc., you are actually losing $50 per hour because you are not generating any sales.

Even working extra hours would not offset all of your yesses because many of these yesses can only be achieved during normal business hours.

For example, you cannot call after 6 pm or on weekends to reconcile past due invoices.

You must learn how to say “no” to those other Yesses such as:

• Can you sit on this committee for this organization?
• Can you sell tickets for that organization?

By being able to say “no”, you are actually saying “yes” to building your business. And it is a lot easier to say “no” if you have a strategic plan and are committed to working that plan and planning your work.