It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask

I was talking to a contractor a few days ago and he mentioned that he was going to have to take a Friday off. Knowing that he had plenty of work, I asked why. It turned out that he was going to finish his current job a day early, but his next customer was expecting him to start on Monday.

I asked him if he had called his next customer to see if she would be ready. No, he said. I already told her it would be Monday. I finally convinced him to call her, and she was thrilled that he could start earlier than expected.

Sometimes we just need to ask for what we want and not be so concerned about hearing “no”. We just might hear “yes”. It can be easy to “know” what the answer will be, and then refrain from ever asking the question.

I see this occur in regard to all kinds of issues relating to paint contracting—deposits, scheduling, employee pay, vendor relations, etc. Far too often the contractor refuses to ask a question, and then he complains about the “answer”.

I’m not a mind reader, and I seriously doubt that you are either. Why should we assume that we know the answer when we haven’t even posed the question? Making such assumptions does a disservice to everyone involved. We don’t get the real answer, and the other party never gets a chance to answer the question. The worse thing that can happen is that we get an answer we don’t like, but it never hurts to ask.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008