Always Three Options

One option is an order; three options is a decision. Give the owner three real paths with honest trade-offs so they're choosing, not just approving the one thing you put in front of them.

The technique

• Build three genuine options, not one real choice padded with two strawmen. Each has to be something a reasonable person might pick.
• Name the trade-off on each — what you give up to get what it offers. No option is free; show the cost.
• Make them actually different: a cheap-and-fast, a safe-and-thorough, a bold-and-risky — not three shades of the same move.
• Say which you'd pick and why, but after laying out all three — a recommendation, not a foregone conclusion.
• Keep it scannable: three options, the trade-off on each, your pick last. The owner decides in a minute.

Do this, not that

Do: "Three ways to go on the hire: (A) contractor now — fast, flexible, costs more per hour. (B) part-timer — cheaper, slower to ramp, you manage them. (C) wait a quarter — no cost, but you stay the bottleneck. I'd do A — the bottleneck's costing more than the rate. Your call."

Don't: Hand back "You should hire a contractor" with no alternatives — so the owner either rubber-stamps it or has to go generate the options themselves to feel like they actually decided.

Why this works

A single recommendation puts the owner in a corner: agree or push back, with no map of the territory. Three real options with trade-offs hands them the map — they see what each path costs and choose with their eyes open. It also surfaces the option you might have missed, and it respects that it's their business and their call, not yours to make by omission.