I find myself turning down a lot of business opportunities lately. You might think I’m crazy. Perhaps.

In fact I think it would be quite irresponsible if I accepted every opportunity offered to me. The reality is I need to be a responsible business owner and select working relations that will positively benefit both my company and our client.

I decline opportunities for a variety of reasons. Often it is because I don’t want to negatively impact our ability to do good work for other clients that we are currently engaged with. Occasionally I’ll decline if I just don’t believe in the prospect’s product or business model. Other times, my spider sense is tingling, warning me that the prospect will simply be too difficult to make the working relationship mutually beneficial.

So… Should We Work Together? Or Not!

I think the criteria is simple.

child with dogYES, we will work well together if…

  • You can admit that what you’ve done so far needs improvement.
  • You are willing to make significant changes. (Change is good.)
  • You can remove emotions from your decision making, and instead make decisions based on facts.
  • You like to learn.
  • You’ll accept us as a marketing partner interested in helping you to achieve success.

NO, we will not work well together if…

  • You’re not willing to share information about how you run your business.
  • You’re not willing to test different marketing tactics.
  • You don’t want to test a past marketing tactic again. (Often times it can be done much better than your original attempt.)
  • You can accept constructive criticism.
  • You think everyone is your target audience.
  • You don’t see value in measuring success.
  • You are afraid of change.
  • You think of us as a disposable commodity/vendor.
  • All you want to do is scrutinize and criticize every suggestion we make.
  • You think your sister’s teenager has all the necessary skills to build a strong business web site.
  • You insist that you host your website using Yahoo Store. (Sorry, no thanks, we wont waste time with that platform.)

Some might think that this is a bit arrogant. Possibly. Everything I stated above is based on my real world experience. I can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.

I’m running a business and so are you. In order for my team to deliver great work, you and I both need to be confident that’s it’s a compatible fit. Wouldn’t you agree?

Let’s connect if you think we’d make a good fit.

-Roland