I am a business person. One who has had a number of deals with people of varying status. One key thing that helped me through the start and running of the business and even now, still upholds me, is integrity.
For a business person, the idea behind running a business is to meet demand/ offer value. But more importantly, it is to make earnings. In almost every definition of the word business that you would find, you may learn that business is about offering service and making profit. The profit is very important in order to not just maintain structure but to get a little something in return. I realize that certain organizations are non-profit,but even then, you may already know that they get funding and aids, which helps to keep the work going. So either way, some finance is needed. As we run our business, we wish, it grows to higher and higher level, by earning profit, in order to expand our reach.
I would like to point out that business doesn't solely lean on profits. Other factors are linked. Ethics, like profit, is an important aspect.
Both are extremely important, but if you don't have ethical considerations covered, what's really the point?
I've seen vendors who sell expired goods, who give out bad products, who lie to make profits, people who would go to any lengths just to rip unsuspecting customers of their cash and I always think to myself if they don't consider the repercussions. Maybe in the beginning, these customers would purchase the products, but what happens when they learn what the vendor has been up to? Of course, they lose trust and would never cone back. A lot of them would even go the extra miles to warn anyone they know against you. And that is bad for business.
There's something fulfilling and light about honesty. As a person, when you feel like a vendor is honest and/or you use their products and it matches your expectations, chances are that you would want to stick with the person and even let others know how good their services are.
Business ethics might not seem like anything significant, but it does play a big role.
To ask which is more important in business, maximizing profits or ethics, suggests a misunderstanding of both business and ethics. You can start a business and make some sales, buy t the way you handle customer relationship, the quality of goods you sell, the price at which you sell, your honesty, will all play a role to either ensure that the customers keep coming amd the numbers keep growing or not. The objective of running a business is to make something on the side and while that should stay as is, its important to uphold a certain level of morality and ethics inorder to stay afloat and above all, to feel the sense of peace and integrity that this pattern of running things brings.
I hope that this was interesting to read.
Thanks for coming around.