Why I Passed On a $120K Project

A couple of weeks ago, I passed on a project with a potential client who wanted to work with us on the development of his web start-up business. Technologically the project was quite interesting as it involved a few challenging aspects as well as a relatively wide array of professional skills. Overall, the project was a perfect match for our web development company and it would be basically impossible for this client to find another web development firm with the necessary set of skills to complete the project in a professional manner.

After scoping out the project in detail, we were able to commit to a $120K budget and a 3 month development period. So far so good.

If there is something I’ve learned over the years, is that we want to work with clients who really want to work with us, who love our work and skills, believe in cooperation, have a realistic budget, and in general are business-smart. I’ve also learned that trying hard to get a project and over compromising on your company’s principles, methodology, or approach just to please the client not only makes your life miserable, but also calls for more trouble and more work for you.

When the client started questioning some terms in our contract of service, I felt that we weren’t a good fit so I decided to pass and to wish them the best of luck and despite the client’s best efforts, I refused to take on this project. Why? Why not reach a compromise after a few legal back-and-forths on the terms of the contract? For a few reasons:

1. First of all, we’re not lawyers! It’s not what we do! And we don’t like to sign contracts that are written in the legal jargon. We’d much rather focus on creating the next big things on the web. We’d much rather work on what we do best – developing cutting edge websites and web applications.

2. Second, we don’t want to compromise on quality, or feel resentful while we are working on the project because we have to follow a methodology we don’t believe in – such as working on a creative project with a fixed bid! That just doesn’t make any sense to us – a creative project must have a flexible payment structure (i.e. by the hour) and a relationship based on trust and professionalism – not a stiff agreement.

3. Most importantly, we love what we do here at Noam Design, and we have a number of projects and start-ups of our owns. Taking on a project with a tight deadline under inflexible conditions will just make our lives more stressful, take time away from our own projects, and not allow us to deliver an outstanding quality we’ll be proud to showcase on our portfolio.

One can say that we are lucky enough to be able to pick our clients and that most can’t afford this luxury. But in the long run, I believe it is a better business strategy to be confident in your approach and to stick to it. You end up being happier in doing what you do (which is a very important success factor in any business), you produce better results more efficiently, and you build a solid business with strong values.