I want to bring you back to the early 1990s. I know some of you were not even born yet. I started my company selling and installing wire shelves and then added laminate in 1992. At that time, my average sale was around $600. That’s right, just $600. I got a phone call from someone who was adding an addition to their home. They wanted a primary closet, a children’s closet, and a linen closet. Simple enough…right?

I went to the appointment and pulled up to the house, and I found that they were adding a 4,000-square-foot addition to their existing 3,500-square-foot house!

That 4,000-square-foot addition contained the primary bedroom, a bathroom, closet, son’s bedroom, playroom, and a laundry room; that was it!

The primary bathroom had a cool curved wall, and the primary closet on the other side followed that curved wall. The owners wanted the closet, along with the rods, shelves, and drawers, to follow that curve.

I took measurements, discussed the project with the owners for over an hour, and left. 

I took all the information I had gathered and began to design, but I couldn’t get past the curved wall. I was a “closet guy” and liked everything to be at right angles, and this project was going to send me down a rabbit hole that could have possibly closed my doors.

The more I thought about it, the more I started to see that this project, which would be well above $10,000 and many times the amount of my average sale, would affect all of the other jobs I had in the pipeline. 

At that time, I was not skilled enough to know how to do this, and my installer was not skilled enough to do this. 

After three days, I wrote the owners a letter saying I would have to decline their job. They were unhappy and asked who I could recommend; I recommended a competitor.

I did not realize it then, but that was the first time I learned that “sometimes the best jobs are the ones you do not take.”
It is not just okay to lose or leave a job; it can be the smart and correct decision.

Why you should leave a job  
There are many reasons that you may make this decision; here are a few:

• The project is not in your normal area of expertise.
• The project is not in your normal service area.
• The project will cause you to have to learn something new that you may not use in the future. 
• The project owner is not someone you work well with.
• The expectations are too high, either in timeline, material, or craftsmanship.
• The owner’s budget is not realistic, and trying to meet it may cause you to lose money if everything does not go perfectly.
• The project will cause you to turn down other work to fit it in.
• The project will cause your other jobs to be pushed around in the schedule.
• The project has too many “special stipulations” like working hours after the kids go to school and before they come home, making a three-day job become a five-day job.

Sometimes, saying “no” is smart. And if you say “no” early enough, you won’t lose three days like I did in my example above! 

That was three days of not installing, not going on other appointments, and not working on my business — all because I was trying to fit a “round peg in a square hole.”

Do what’s best for your business
Returning to the curved closet customer, about 10 months later I learned that while the owners had quite a bit of money the project got out of control, and they decided they were not happy with the contractor and subcontractors. 

They halted all work on their home and decided to get the project back into budget. 

They would not pay the full amount of what was due their contractor and subs but instead offered to pay everyone at 60 cents on the dollar.

Sometimes, the jobs you walk away from are the best for your business.

Editor’s Note: Columnist Tim Coleman has been a featured speaker at numerous Closets Conference & Expo events as well as all-day symposiums at AWFS and the International Woodworking Fair (IWF). You can read more of his Front Office columns online at woodworkingnetwork.com/author-works/timcoleman.