The $1,000 Job I Declined

I think my husband had a heart attack when I declined a $1,000 job. You know a $1,000 is a lot of money. It is what some people make in a month. It is a lot to me as well. The question is why did I decline that much money? How do I determine when to say “Yes” to a job and when to say “No”? What happened as a result of me declining the job? How did I decline the job to make sure my relationship with the brand was still in good standing?

The first thing I do when I am offered a job is I think about what I have scheduled on my content calendar. A content calendar is the posts that are going to be written for the site on each day. I think about the content I have coming up on my calendar. Next, I pondered will this be beneficial to my audience? Does it fit my point of view? Will I get traffic on this content long after it is produced? Can I write an organic post for sponsored content?

I love doing sponsored posts that are organic. This one was featured on a national website, my roasted pepper pasta. I did get paid for that post; it wasn’t close to my normal pay rate, but it was for charity, so I did it. I believe in paying it forward that is a mission on my site so the opportunity although it didn’t fill my purse it did fill my soul, and that is important to me.

The next thing I do after I receive a job offer is I look at the requirements. I look at the time involved. How much time will it take me to complete the project? Can I schedule the social shares? Do they require additional images? Will I be asked to attend calls or meetings? Does the opportunity require travel? What does it cost me to leave? I have to pay for babysitters. Do I have to cover any portion of my travel including parking at the airport, food, luggage, transportation to and from the airport? These are the thing to consider prior to agreeing to a job. What will I miss in my children’s lives if I go? These are all factors in my decision. I created my own business to put my family first so to me time is money and if I am away from the people I love I need to be compensated.

I then write out a detailed plan. If the workload is two posts, a trip, and one-month exclusivity, for example, I need to see if that makes sense. If I do this; I think about what I charge for two sponsored posts. Then I consider what I charge for my time to attend a trip, and then what business would be lost as a result of this partnership. If you are talking about Coke, then Pepsi isn’t going to hire you. Recently, a pet food brand hired me for three posts but I can’t write about other brands for those months. I looked back on my site and figured out how much I made talking about pet food. I then determined if this opportunity would yield me more money or cost me more money to take.

It is a simple equation. Write down all your costs. The out of pocket expenses. Then try to figure out the time for the project. Look at your calendar and determine if it fits and what you will lose by taking the job. You can see last years content and decide if you will lose potential jobs based on who advertised with you last year, Then write down what you would personally give up. Then write down what you would charge if you sold these services individually. Finally, think about what this opportunity will bring you in the future. Will it provide quality content on your site? Will it help you land new jobs? Will you learn something new?

How do you say “no” without ruining a relationship? I say honesty is the best policy. I explained to the client what my expenses would be if I took the job. I offered ways they could pay more by distributing their spending differently. They weren’t able to meet my expectations, so I declined. They invited me to participate again, and they feel like in the future, they could meet my rates. I am hopeful that happens it is a great team to work for, but I am in business, so I need to make business decisions. The 1,000 job wasn’t a good fit for me.

The reason I turned down the $1,000 job is the time commitment, and workload was comparable to what I would charge if individuals approached me for the same service. I was right because I was offered a job paying a lot more for a lot less work. The lesson is to know your worth, and if you demand more you will get it if you have a good reason and if you do not then it isn’t the right job. If you are working for less than you are worth you will not be available for jobs that pay what you are worth. I would rather spend time with my family and working on my overall goals then spending time working for less than my hourly rate. If you need help pitching read my how to pitch post. Good Luck! You are worth it!

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