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Learning How To Say “No”
By Christina Lemmey | April 3, 2008
I’m counting down the days until the school year ends. During the course of the year, I discovered that I really spread myself too thin in my volunteer duties but that’s a part of who I am: a total people pleaser.
I already have a plan for cutting down on volunteering once September rolls around again but now I’m finding that I have to learn how to say “no” to some client projects and that’s much harder to do. People pleasers want to help everyone and want to be known as the “dependable one,” and saying “no” to someone is extremely difficult.
Part of being a VA is learning how to schedule your time effectively and learning how to be honest with clients about your capabilities. This week I had to tell a client, after quoting her a price, that I couldn’t do the task she requested in a timely matter. I was awfully embarassed but hopefully she understands that I didn’t want her project being held up because of my schedule.
Lessons learned: Think about your project timing carefully; consult your calendar; and don’t be so quick to press that “send” button.
Topics: Work at Home Life |
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Christina, I’ve been through this a couple of times already myself. I’ve had one or two people who hired me only to realize that I didn’t feel I could give their project 100%. Not due to time constraints, at least not yet but because after receiving all the details for the project, I realized I didn’t have the knowledge of their particular project or programs and didn’t want to dust wing my way through it and hand them back bad work. If I can’t provide a potential client with 100%, high quality work then I have to let them know that. The success of my business depends on it.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Typo: “dust” should be “just”. Don’t you just hate typos? LOL
April 4th, 2008 at 4:18 am
Great topic. One that most of us WAHM’s deal with at one time or another.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:34 am
[…] Learning How To Say “No” […]
April 5th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Awesome message Christina. I use VA’s a lot and I for one would much rather a VA let me know honestly what their schedule is. I welcome that type of honesty