‘No' is not a four-letter word

Positivity and a can-do attitude are crucial to your business, but saying ‘no’ has its place

- Paul Wilkinson

When you start your business, there is no doubt you’ll be bombarded with training content: TED talks, YouTube videos, workshops, seminars, books, and podcasts. And nearly all of them will be about positivity and the benefit of saying ‘yes’. What is less talked about is the skill of standing your ground, what you believe in, and sometimes saying ‘no’.

Whenever you undertake a booking, you have to evaluate the prospective and determine if it fits within your brand. The aesthetics are important, of course, but more crucially, your brand values: what you believe to be reasonable, ethical, and in line with your service.

A global media company approached me to photograph an upcoming TV personality. However, they told me that I would have to relinquish all copyright to the images and could never even say I created them, regardless of where they were published.

When you create images, a significant value of the job is that you, as the creator, also have the right to use the images to a greater or lesser degree.