As most businesses prepare for the end-of-year closeout, by all accounts, many of us feel optimistic about the future. This is also the time when business owners, myself included, are actively recruiting talented professionals to support our business.

Yet in all my reading, one conversation seems to be missing as entrepreneurs navigate new — and often unexpected — demands: What happens after a prospective client says no?

Rejection is part of building a business, but it’s rarely treated as a process worth examining. Below are three questions I encourage every small business owner and entrepreneur to consider when a deal doesn’t move forward.

First and rather immediately, you should thank the potential client for the opportunity. There was a contract that I did not win in 2023, but in 2025, with leadership transitions and a shift in overall organizational strategy, my company became the right candidate for the project.

In confirming our partnership, they mentioned that they never forgot how I responded to the initial proposal rejection.

After you have expressed your gratitude, now is the time to delve into strategic questions:

1. Did this client match the current capabilities or skills of my company?

In my experience, many companies, mine included, submit proposals out of sheer curiosity or, worse, out of panic if the sales cycle is not as vibrant as we would like, when in reality the client or project was never a good fit. Every single proposal should be a fit for your target audience and what you bring to the market.

According to the Harvard Business School, understanding your audience demographic data, behaviors and motivations allows you to thoughtfully assess if they fit within your business value proposition/brand promise and, second, craft a proposal that directly speaks to their needs, preferences and desires.

Related: Want to Succeed? Learn to Say ‘No’

2. While you may have sufficiently addressed the request for services, did you level up your proposal with the ‘and what?’

As an example, in 2025, when submitting a gala event proposal for a justice and equity organization, I shared my direct link to their mission as someone who struggled early on with financial duress, resulting in receiving an eviction notice while attempting to leave an abusive relationship.

During this season in my life, I was the recipient of community efforts to support me coming out of my situation. This true story, paired with the documented history of my company’s success with managing galas, allowed us to stand out from the rest because I sent a clear message to the client that we were values-aligned.

In this case, my ‘and what’ was about my why and purpose for wanting to partner with them. Here are a few other examples of ‘and what’ you could include in future proposals:

• Offering a case study from a previous project, even if it wasn’t requested in the request for proposal.
• Explaining how you can tangibly add value with a specific example that yields financial savings.
• Sharing insight into your framework on your approach to the project. This is not an opportunity to restate the values on your website — this is a challenge to express how your values live in and throughout the project.

3. Ask the prospective client: Who did you select for the project?

This is not an invitation to become or copy from the company that was awarded the contract. At one point, I did not receive a contract because another company that had won Emmys was given the contract.

And guess what? They should have been, but this information helped me to understand where my business was in the conversation. I was honored to learn from this experience. What I believe is that rejection is an opportunity to spark a continuous learning process.

Rejection can help clarify your goals and priorities, force you to consider if your business offering needs to change, as well as refine where you may want to spend your business development resources.

While I think there is tremendous value in the introspective process, this does not dismiss the fact that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20.3% of businesses fail in their first year, this number grows to 30% in the second year, and for those who reach a decade, roughly only 60-65% continue to thrive. Therefore, for every no, each entrepreneur must manage the mental disappointment that comes from a lost opportunity, as well as the stress of a temporary revenue shortage, which can be humbling.

What I have discovered is that every no is usually a yes for another area in business development and overall career trajectory. It has been my lived experience that every single time I received a rejection, it redirected me to a necessary professional pause and/ or provided room for me to take on a larger professional opportunity. Specifically, when I have not received a contract, I have revisited our proposal template, refined our value proposition and revisited our fee structure. As a result, each rejection has made my business more innovative.

Yes, the truth of the matter is that rejection stings because it directly attacks our ego, which is why I am providing this framework to equip all entrepreneurs to embrace the mindset shift that assumes that every rejection is meant for your overall success, even if you cannot see it right away.

So consider your next no as an opportunity for introspection and a clear invitation to keep going, albeit with some strategic adjustment. Entrepreneurs’ contribution to the U.S. economy is irrefutable, and every entrepreneur needs to push beyond the temporary rejections to continue the work that your company is uniquely positioned to do in 2026 and beyond.