Booked because he turned up

In Heliopolis there is a man who fixes air conditioners, and by the middle of May he is the hardest person in the district to reach.

He did not get there with advertising. He got there by turning up when he said he would, two summers in a row, and by leaving a unit that stayed fixed. One family told another, and the second family told their building.

Now the phone does not stop. He says yes to all of it, because for years he said yes to anything and was glad to get it. So he arrives late, then later. He promises Tuesday and comes on Thursday. A job is left half finished while he rushes to the next one.

The thing that filled his diary is exactly the thing the full diary is wearing away.

There are two ways out, and both feel wrong to someone who remembers the lean years.

The first is to refuse more work than feels comfortable. Not every call, but the jobs he would have chased when he had none: the far side of the city, the half-day for a favour, the customer who only rings in a crisis. Being trusted is what earns him better calls, and keeping that trust means letting some of the rest go.

The second is to say plainly what will happen. Not "tomorrow, God willing" to everyone, but "Thursday afternoon, and I will message if that moves." Reliable has never meant never late. It means nobody is surprised.

Most small businesses that stumble do it this way, on the reputation that made them.