Knowing Your Niche Means Sometimes Saying No

A few weeks ago, another business owner I've been eager to work with left me a voicemail.

Good news! He had taken on a new client and was hoping to outsource some of the work to me.

Finally. I've been dropping not-so-subtle hints to him about the possibility of us working together since 2004. So, I called him right back to find out what he had in mind.

The not so good news. :( Turned out he wanted me to install a web template and "pretty up" this new client's website.

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you'll know that web designy thingies are not my thing.

Oh, in case you're wondering why someone who's known me since 2004 would even ASK me to help on a project like this, well, it's not his fault. It's because way back in '04 (and '05... and part of 06) I had the misguided notion that a good Virtual Assistant had to do virtually everything. Not true, and the world's been a better place for me (and everyone who knows me) since that realization came about.

Anyhoo, what was I supposed to do about this "dream client" of mine who had FINALLY called and wanted to send some work my way?

I did the only thing I could. I said, "Thank you very much, but no thank you."

Oh, I was very nice about it. I explained that I was trying to get away from that type of work and focus on what I was really good at - writing and editing. I even offered to refer him to someone else.

I was briefly worried that would be it for him ever wanting to work with me again. But, he has contacted me since then about other stuff, so I'm still on his radar. And hopefully one day he'll need to outsource something to a good writer and editor.