Saying No to “Good” Business

Any business is good business, right?

Recently a potential client approached me with a request to manage a project which involved building a custom software solution for them.  The budget was good, they had a pretty solid idea of what they wanted and had lots of good answers to my questions.  They even had mock-ups of what they wanted the software to look like when it was finished.

So what was the problem you may be wondering?  A gut feeling.  When this client was referred to me and I was informed of what they wanted to do my first reaction was, “Why would they want to build and maintain their own application when SO MANY good options already exist.  There are established, tailored companies that have 1,000’s of programmers already creating the type of software they wanted to create.  Their budget would easily allow them to pay one of these companies to tailor their product to meet their needs.  After consulting with a few peers (yes, consultants consult consultants) with more expertise in the application building arena my gut reaction was confirmed.

Could I have managed the project? Yes.  Could I have made money? Yes.  Would I have more than likely spent most of my time banging my head against the wall dealing with a constantly frustrated client? Yes.

My gut told me they way this client wanted to do the project was wrong from the get-go.  They did not want to budge on their vision.  I respect that.  Rather than torture myself managing a product I felt was doomed for failure from Day 1 I decided to simply pass on the job.

I sincerely hope they get the results they want and can find someone to help them reach their goal but in this case I was simply not the guy for the job.