Sometimes You Have to Say “No”
by Vlad Loktev For an entrepreneur, one of the hardest things to learn is when to say “No!” to a customer. After many sleepless nights at the keyboard, all you want is somebody to welcome you with open arms and tell you how awesome your product is by signing a big fat check. Before celebrating, moving into an actual office, and expanding your team, pause, and think about the ramifications… you may actually need to tell the customer that his or her proposal is flattering but you aren’t ready to hit the dating scene just quite yet. Early on, when you are searching for the right first market to enter, you can easily get sidetracked by a vocal and ambitious customer. Some software startups begin with a B2C vision, but somewhere during the development process, a B2B opportunity presents itself. It’s tempting to jump at the opportunity as there are many advantages: The first customer is always the hardest to get and subsequent sales pitches become easier as you can now assure future customer...