What Is the Blind Yes?

The Blind Yes is accepting an order, a customer, or a job without checking whether it fits your shop's capacity, pricing, or goals.

Profit is decided the moment you say yes. It isn't decided on press, and it isn't decided when the invoice goes out. By the time a job reaches production, the margin is already locked in.

Here's what it looks like. A customer calls Thursday wanting 36 shirts, 6 colors on the front, by Monday. Your salesperson says yes because the customer is nice and the shop feels slow. Now you're burning 6 screens for 36 pieces, a press is torn down for an afternoon, and the 1,200-piece order that pays your bills slips a day.

That order looked like revenue. It was a cost you agreed to.

Why does the Blind Yes matter?

The rush jobs, the setups that eat the day, and the missed ship dates your production manager complains about often start as a Blind Yes upstream. Production is downstream of what sales accepts.

Who in your shop is allowed to say yes, and what are they checking before they do?