Today I had a great conversation with investors. They mentioned how important it is to say no quickly. Their thesis is simple: you want to have straightforward criteria that allow you to quickly recognize when you can’t move forward. One example: an entrepreneur either is or isn’t a solo founder. An investor who has decided not to invest in solo founders won’t waste time and energy considering a solo founder’s startup. Listening to this reminded me of my early days at CCAW and how I learned this lesson the hard way.

Before we had a steady vendor base, I had to make cold calls and sell vendors on doing business with us. Courting tons of vendors and getting them to agree to partner with a company they’d never heard of was time consuming. Sometimes, after agreeing to terms, I would learn it wasn’t feasible to do business with them. A couple of common issues were that they didn’t have electronic products or couldn’t provide pricing data. They’d say something like, “Just call us and we’ll give you whatever you need.” I’d spent valuable time and energy on a relationship that would never go anywhere. It was frustrating, to say the least.

I eventually created a checklist of questions to ask vendors early on. It focused heavily on their technical and operational capabilities. If their answer to any of the questions was no, it wasn’t a good fit and I walked away. Over time, I refined the checklist to the point that we spent time only on partnerships that were a perfect match.

Define your bottom line and quickly say no when someone can’t meet your standards. You’ll find a lot of value in this, personally and professionally. We all get the same 24 hours; how we use them is what separates us. Walk away sooner rather than later from relationships that can’t progress.

How do you manage your time more effectively?