Why we turn down about 30% of enquiries

• Four people can’t take on everything. We run at 6–8 active clients, on purpose.
• The usual noes: undersized budgets, no existing customers, and "build me an X like theirs" briefs.
• Saying no earlier means the yeses get better work.
• About a third of the people we say no to come back 6–12 months later better prepared.

Four people can’t take on everything. We average around 6–8 active clients at a time. Which means for every yes, there are usually 2–3 noes.

This feels rude to say out loud. It’s not. It’s the single most important thing we do to make sure the clients we DO take get our best work.

The usual noes

• Budgets under $500/mo with retainer expectations of a larger team.
• Brand new businesses with no customers, hoping SEO will save them. SEO is a fertiliser, not a seed.
• Scopes that look like "build us what X has" without understanding what X actually does.
• Projects where the client has already burned three agencies. Usually the pattern is the problem.
• "Urgent" briefs with a 2-week deadline for work that needs 8.
• Anyone who opens with "I need cheaper than I saw on your site".

The usual yeses

Businesses with a real product or service, at least some customers, and a specific problem we can scope. Often not glamorous: a tradie whose site hasn’t been touched since 2019, a clinic that needs a new booking flow, a café that wants to rank for its neighbourhood.

Small, boring, fixable problems. The stuff that compounds.

We’d rather do great work for six clients than mediocre work for twenty.

What a good "no" sounds like

We try to do this well. If we say no, we try to say why, and refer to someone if we can.

What happens when we say no

Interesting pattern: about a third of the people we say no to come back 6–12 months later, better prepared. We say yes to most of those. They’re easier to work with the second time because the first conversation already filtered the scope.

Saying no early is kinder than taking the money and doing bad work. We learned that the expensive way.

Common pushbacks, answered

Real objections we hear when we share this with clients. Often the disagreement is the most interesting part.

Other people, smarter than us

Sources we leaned on, plus a couple we just like. None of these paid to be here.

1. 01
   On saying no

   Jason Fried, Signal v. Noise

   The original argument for fewer, better clients. Twenty years old, still right.
2. 02
   The right number of clients

   Paul Jarvis, Company of One

   The book that gave us a vocabulary for staying small on purpose.