I feel like an asshole even asking this but - we have a customer that we have done odd jobs for for several years. However as the business has expanded and grown, we can’t really afford to do work for this customer - the time vs labor hours is not worth it.
We used to have extra labor hours that we could accommodate her, the nice old lady just wants a strong person to do things like assemble a IKEA desk, hang some picture frames on the wall, replace a doorknob and latch… nothing difficult, just time consuming. but now our available time is getting more limited.
We don’t want to do handyman jobs anymore because they always grow beyond the initial scope. But we’ve done work for her before… how do we start to decline this work now? Tried saying “no, we cant do this” and she was like “you’ve done it before, this is what I want, why won’t you do the work now?” and we deferred saying we are booked for the holidays.
Our guy makes way more money for him and us doing bigger commercial jobs.
How can I let her down gently and make it clear we don’t do this kind of work anymore?
Raise your prices until it is worth your time. Or pivot the business slightly and say “We’re no longer doing that kind of work, but we can recommend the following local alternatives.”