Why Refusing Clients Can Be A Good Growth Strategy

We have 6 large jobs quoted on at the moment and another 8 smaller jobs quoted on.
If we get most of the jobs (my guess is we’ll get 10 out of the 14) we’ll have enough work to last our team the next 3 – 4 months. This work, along with our existing work (we manage quite a number of client sites) means we’ll be working our little butts off each and every day.
So then I’ll have some decisions to make – do I put on more staff or do we stop all of our marketing and not take on any new clients for a few weeks?
Based on my previous experience this is what can happen when we get super busy:
Our existing clients can suffer.
They can suffer because we’ll spend time and energy trying to attract new clients. We’ll spend more time on attracting these new clients than on looking after our old clients. Old clients who have supported our business for years, clients who refer their friends, clients who pay on time every time, clients who we like.
And that’s plain crazy.
So if we refuse extra clients it means we’ll be able to allocate more time to our existing clients. And they’ll get better service, be happier and refer us more clients.
Do We Put More Staff On?
The other issue is staff. To continue to attract clients and provide them with the quality of service we take pride in providing we’d need to put on new staff.
But that takes time. Finding the right person for the job is a time consuming process. Interviewing people is a time consuming job. Then training this new person is a time consuming job.
I’ve found the best time to put new staff on is when things are a little slower. That way we get the opportunity to educate and train the new team member in a more supportive environment and can allocate the appropriate resources for this very important job.
Hope that perspective helps you in your review of staffing needs.
Brendon