Dealing with risk

The other day, on LinkedIn, I asked for a bit of help.

To be honest, I kind of knew what the answer was; I had mapped out the various possibilities and was pretty confident about which way to take things. I asked because I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed any possibilities.

But while I didn't expect the number of responses I got, I did find something really interesting in there.

A big chunk of the responses were "you should go for it, follow your heart" with the odd "just do XYZ to cover yourself". While a whole load of other responses were "we're about to hit economic uncertainty, don't take a chance, be careful".

Because everyone has a different appetite for risk. For some people, playing it safe is the only choice. But others prefer to roll the dice and see what happens.

Which is why, when I'm writing a proposal for a potential client, I always give three options. Because I don't know how they feel about risk.

So there's a lower priced option that carries a bit of risk - normally variable pricing or fewer guarantees. A higher priced option that has little risk. And something sat in between.

So when a client complains about the price, you've probably misjudged their risk profile. Give them options and you might find they are perfectly happy.