Without a good foundation, businesses fail. Without good maintenance of our business, it will fail. Without growth, chances are, our business will fail. Without good customer to contractor and contractor to customer relations, our business will fail.
As a young man working one of my first jobs outside the family farm while going to college for ‘Administration of Justice’, the father of the owner of the company I worked for gave me this tid-bit of knowledge back in the early 1970’s: ‘Show me a man’s wallet and his tool box and I can tell you a lot about his priorities, his character, and his work and business practices’. Today, that would probably have to include seeing ones’ smart phone and even computer. What sites do you visit? What pictures do you keep? Are you orderly/organized? Are you punctual= keep a calendar and appointments? And much more.
One aspect of this is of particular interest and way too often overlooked. How do you maintain your business relationships? Are you kind, patient, punctual, considerate of others time and needs, meeting obligations, a good mentor, a good example, a wise steward?
A recent issue really started me to re-evaluate much of my business philosophy. I tend to be too trusting, too patient, too long-suffering in business. Thus, before you know it, someone has taken extreme advantage of you and your only recourse is to go totally off book and get the lawyers involved. WHY? Because you did not maintain your business relationship. One that was violated by the other party but should have ‘had the oil checked’ way before it got so out of hand that you had to call in the mechanic, aka- lawyer.
Companies today need constant oversight. Our own and those we are doing business with. We need to maintain and hold up our own end to have the reputations that we desire to have as being honest, trustworthy, operating with integrity, and to just be someone others want to work with.
But, we also must oversee others and hold them accountable to contracts, obligations, responsibilities so they don’t start taking advantage of us because we are so easily manipulated. We let one late payment go. Then later it happens again and another is even later. Then it builds, until all of a sudden, they are past due on several weeks worth of payments of invoices. Forget the contractual obligations and the responsibility to keep their contractors paid for services so that all the contractors personnel can be paid and obligations with their vendors met.
You reach out to them and they don’t get back to you. They really had the responsibility to contact you in the first place and let you know if there are any problems with money flow. When these occasions arise, they don’t pay the late fees and interest on the statement and in the contract. Then, when you do finally get in contact with someone, you get told they will do you a great favor and get a check out in a week or so. By the time someone gets around to signing the check and someone else gets around to mailing the check and our fabulous mail system gets the check to you, another two weeks or so have gone by. By now, you are late on many of your payments because your resources have run out or you are paying high interest on credit cards or business lines of credit that should not have had to be used for such issues. Now, business with them has cost you and you don’t have a “profit” margin.
All because we did not do our due diligence and maintain our business relationships because we were too busy working and taking care of other business or personal issues.
I teach a class on ‘Starting A Successful Welding Inspection Business’ that covers a lot of layers of what goes into the foundation. But, after that, we need to make sure to check the oil and maintain our business relationships. Way beyond the number that go out of business within the first three years, too many fail down the road because they did not continue to check the oil regularly. Are we paying our own bills on time? Are we maintaining a good reputation with vendors and customers? Are we receiving payment from our customers in a timely fashion? Do we have good follow up with our accounts?
Regardless of your actual line of business, consider how you maintain your business relationships. The sub-title of my class is “Am I a Welding Inspector, OR, a Businessman?” If you want to remain in business, you are both. And you can’t relax at either.
BTW, I have not, and will not AT THIS TIME, mentioned any names. But, if this is not resolved soon, I will. Not to get revenge but to protect others from an unscrupulous company working nationwide who doesn’t live up to their obligations. This is a repeat offense already for which I largely blame myself. But, if not handled with a proper spirit from them, I will call them out.
Bottomline: BE WISE IN BUSINESS AND MAINTAINING YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS. It will ease your stress levels and keep you working and hopefully prospering.