This is a really great question and I want to look at this through the lens of your business’s journey. When you're in the early stages of your business, you're just building clientele, what you say yes and no to will probably look different once you have a pipeline of clients and a steady income/revenue stream from your business. 

I wanted to point that out because I’ve worked with over 180 educators through Get LaunchED Consulting™️ and I've seen the patterns that crop up when it comes to choosing projects. Typically when you are in the early stage of your business, you don't have the privilege to be picky and choosy. Let’s be honest here, being able to say no to money is a privilege that not everyone has when they’re early on in their business. But just remember that it’s always right to say no. 

Now, in the early stages of your business, you’ll likely be in a position where you have more of an ability to say yes, whether that ability is time or capacity. Once your business begins growing and you have consistent revenue and clientele, you probably won’t have the same amount of time and capacity that you did when you were first starting out, which will likely inform your decisions when it comes to taking on new projects or clients. 

I often hear a lot of hesitation from people early on in their business when they are offered an opportunity that doesn’t 100% match the problem their business is solving. And so they're often on the fence about saying yes or no to the opportunity, but I say why not? If you want to take on that opportunity, absolutely go ahead and do it. If you have the time and capacity, and it's something that's of interest to you, go for it! 

Early on in your business is a great time for you to experiment. You're still clarifying the problem you're solving, who you serve and how you serve them. You can certainly draft that all up and write it in a one pager or put it on your website, but it takes actually doing the work to gain clarity around what those structures are in your business. 

Now, there will come a time in your business where you’ve grown your clientele and revenue and you’re going to have to have some clear criteria of what you say yes and no to. So what I say no to today, is probably something I said yes to maybe two or three years ago in my business, because my criteria has evolved. I’m going to share with you some of the criteria I consider when I am determining whether or not to take on an opportunity.

As I said, your criteria can and should change as you continue your entrepreneurial journey. Especially because once you’re two or three years into your business, you won’t have the same capacity you used to early on in your business, so you’re going to need to say no to things. So my favorite set of questions to ask myself when it comes to this sort of decision are from the Podcast Jesus and Jollof hosted by Yvonne Orji and Luvvie Ajayi. I highly recommend you listen to the episode “The Fine Print of Success” because they make some really great points. Below are the five questions that they ask themselves when deciding whether or not to take on an opportunity. 

Question #1 - Will it Pay My Fee?

This one is pretty direct and straightforward, but always worth asking. Whatever the opportunity is, will it pay your fee?

Question #2 - Will I Enjoy It?

So this is a question that I think comes from a bit of a place of privilege. When I say that I mean you can be more comfortable saying no to opportunities when you have steady revenue, which makes it easier to determine whether or not something will bring you joy.

For example, there have been some opportunities that I received where I can tell that I’m not going to enjoy them. It could have been anything from the workload, to the vibe I got from the client, that in my gut I could tell I wouldn’t enjoy the opportunity. Now that I have established my business and have more stability, I have the privilege of saying “actually, I’m not going to go for that opportunity, because I can tell I won’t enjoy it.”

Question #3 - Is it Something New or Different?

New or different could mean something new or different about the actual structure of the service, audience, the location, but mainly you want to determine whether or not there is something that's new or different about the opportunity that would be pretty interesting. 

Question #4 - Will it Elevate My Profile?

When I say elevate your profile, I mean, will this opportunity provide you a chance to grow your credibility?

For example, I did a TEDx talk a few years ago. It was not a paid opportunity, but it was a great chance for me to elevate my profile by speaking on the TEDx stage, because of the brand of TEDx and speakers who are giving TED talks are seen as experts. 

Question #5 - Will it Put Me In Front of a Larger Audience? 

For this question, you want to think about how many people would now have more awareness about you, your services and your brand if you were to take on the opportunity.  

So those are the five questions that Luvvie and Yvonne recommend thinking through when it comes to a new opportunity. They note that of these five questions, at least three answers should be yes. That’s the cue to say yes to the opportunity. Notice that ‘will it pay my fee?’ is one of the questions. So that the answer to that could be a no, but maybe it's something that'll elevate your profile, it's new and different and it puts you in front of a larger audience. Which may mean that the opportunity would be worth saying yes to, because it actually would give you access to potential revenue that would not only compensate for that opportunity, but also provide further compensation. 

So those are the five questions I like to think about when determining whether or not to take on new consulting opportunities. I hope this is helpful, and remember, you’re never wrong to say no! 

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