Larger corporations have business ethics objectives. Small businesses need only operate with integrity. Small businesses get a bad reputation because all too often they do not show up in excellence. Most do not have processes that give a professional, structured, and efficient experience. Or they don’t have enough labor to be timely with deliverables. To overcome and stand out from such ill-formed reputations, here are 4 tips on showing up integrity and excellence so that you get repeat business from a great brand reputation.
- Communicate like a business. Be clear with your marketing messaging and contract language regarding what your offer is, what will be delivered, and how. Give multiple touchpoints during the servicing of your offer to include reminders and progress reports. Be sure to create end-of-service communication that earmarks the completion of paid service, so that if more is needed another offer can be extended.
- Deliver on the promise. As a human, you will make mistakes. In that case, be sure you are over-communicative about what you are doing to fix mistakes and how you will make up for them. Your brand is not your logo or your colors it is your promise and what clients can expect from you and for you to deliver. Always give the people what they paid for. If possible, under-promise and over-deliver!
- Pay what is owed. When it comes to your vendors, contractors, teams, and expenses… pay what you owe. Holding payments hostage, paying your team late, and doing undue chargebacks on legitimate expenses… ALLLL create energy you will get back in your business with your own revenue.
- Recognize your internal clients. Having a team is a privilege. I call your it to people resources instead of human resources because a lot of people leave humanity out of HR. People are a valued resource that propels your business success forward. Take good care of your people. They are there to service your business mission but as a leader, you should service them while they are under your leadership. It is hardly ever the job or the duties that create a toxic environment. It is almost always the leadership or lack thereof. Your team are your internal clients and should be treated well and invested in for the contribution they give to and for you.
If you would like to talk about the operations roles you need to plan and drive your CEO vision, let’s talk. ShaCannon.info/talk