No I won’t. Here’s why.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending Q Music’s conference Women In Music at the Judith Wright Centre.

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I heard from all kinds of ladies working in the industry – from musicians to publicists to label owners and the resounding message was this:

Work hard, be creative and take every opportunity you can.

If you do this, we heard, you’re likely to succeed.

Whilst that seems like pretty solid advice at first look, Original Matters Manager Cathy Oates took a somewhat difference approach when she put her success and the success of the bands she manages (Angus and Julia Stone for example) down to one simple thing: saying no.

It’s when we compromise, it’s when we change our focus for someone else that we are most likely to fail. And once we have, we’ll be worse off than before because not only will we have let someone else down, but we’ll also have let ourselves down.

For musicians it may be about surrendering control of their songs or imagery or supporting a band they don’t believe in. But it applies in our field too and as a result, we’ve learned to say no.

Some of the reasons we say no…

If we feel that we aren’t the best company for your project we’ll say no.
If you have expectations that can’t be met we’ll say no.
If you’re not committed to your web strategy we’ll say no.
If your budget doesn’t meet our price range we’ll say no.

But…

If we say no it means we can do our absolute best work when we do say yes.
It means we can meet and exceed the expectations of those who are committed to working together.
It means nobody is disappointed by an over-promise and under-deliver scenario.
It means we can help you find a web company or individual who may be more suited to your needs.

When have you turned down a new job, a new client or a new opportunity and why?

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About Sarah McVeigh

Sarah McVeigh is part of Bluewire's alunmni. Sarah worked as a copywriter from 2009-2011, before accepting her dream career of being a journalist for the ABC.