I personally love the idea of owning and running a business or two (I Am Black Business, Inc and Urban Geek Web Design LLC). I am sure that a large number of our readers are already running their own business or would like to. After running Urban Geek Web Design for two years, I’d like to share one basic rule that should guide you in your activities as well as decisions.
That rule is “One business should treat other businesses as that one business would like other businesses to treat itself.”
Yes, I just modified the Golden Rule to fit a business context. It seems simple enough, but I personally run into businesses that break this basic but extremely important rule almost every day. In the back of my mind, I wonder how these businesses plan to be successful if they can’t take care of simple business obligations. A couple of examples I run into all the time are:
- Not paying invoices in a timely manner. You should pay your invoices in a timely manner if you expect to get paid for your services/products in a timely manner.
- Being late or not communicating in a timely manner. You should respect other’s time if you expect them to respect your time.
With the creation of I Am Black Business, we are not only helping patrons find and support black owned businesses but also facilitating business to business connections as well. The economic strength of our community is very dependent upon these B2B connections. Following the Business Golden Rule is the foundation all businesses should be built on to ensure respect and trust are both earned and given.