Every business is set up to meet the needs of a particular set of people for the purpose of solving their problem in exchange for some benefits (profit).
But before a business can focus on profit maximization, they must be well-known, trusted, and reliable.
As I was scrolling through the pages of my Facebook this afternoon, I saw a quote by the CEO of the UBA Group (United Bank of Africa), Tony Elumelu, and it goes thus: "You don't build a successful business by focusing on profit; you do so by focusing on people."
The topic for this week's edition 1 of the Hive Learners Weekly Fractured Context, talking about work ethics and profit, really got me thinking about my personal brand as an event decorator.
We all desire high-paying clients in our businesses, but you see, a business should grow up and not blow up, and what makes a business grow up are the working environment of its staff and its customer relations policies (ethics).
Over time I discovered that when I have some clients come to me for certain jobs and they already have a price tag they want to pay, if I don't agree to their prices, they go away because people always tend to go for what they can afford.
Several times that has happened to me. Sometimes I go back to my plan and see that I would have also made a little profit from doing those jobs because the biggest jobs I have gotten in my career as an event decorator came from doing some of those small jobs.
When a company focuses on customer service satisfaction irrespective of the amount offered by the customer, what happens is you get referrals, which are free advertisements of your brand. Also, people tend to always go back to where they are valued.
Over time the customer compound and the returns become steady and consistent, unlike when a company focuses on profit; they might only get a few clients that are able to appreciate the value of service by paying the stipulated price, which isn't good for a business, especially if the business is a startup.
So a business can be both ethically and profit-oriented, but the ethics is what determines if a business will be profitable or not, because a satisfied customer will always come back and also help to spread words about your business.
And when the business is able to break even and is doing steady returns, then they can start categorizing customers according to demands and also move towards standardized pricing for service.
A company with steady returns and a good record can easily work up to a bank to request a loan to increase operations or for expansion because they have records of turnover over a period of time, unlike a company that has one big client maybe once in 3 months.
So while profitability is the goal of every business, ethics makes the goal more realistic and achievable because a business whose aim is profitability without ethics may get some gigs but will not be able to sustain itself in the day-to-day running of the business, which is bad for business.
A business that will thrive is one with a good management structure and people-oriented.
Thanks for stopping by.
Images were AI generated based on my prompt.