On Friday I attended an online business networking event where each month they hold a draw and the winner gets 2 minutes the following month to talk about their business to the whole group, normally about 40 to 50 people before we have a series of breakout rooms of about five to six people. The person chosen last month couldn’t attend and I was picked as a last-minute substitute. I spoke about the importance of being kind and how it was good for business, good for the community and acted as the oil that made things run smoothly.
In the break out rooms afterwards several people commented that they liked that I chose to talk about that rather than sell my business to them. That made me think about the fact that many people promote the wrong thing, they focus on the product and not their businesses values.
Yes, people need to know that you offer particular products or services; however, particularly where the product or services is available from many places, that will not make people want to buy from you. Focus on your business values and people will buy from you if they align with theirs. Price will be less of an issue. If you are trying to compete on price, remember there can only be one business with the lowest price. If that is you that low price is eating into your profits.
Business values matter most when it comes to discretionary spend. I love beer and was a huge fan of Brewdog. I had a little wobble when stories of treating employees badly emerged in the media, but that was addressed by the owners. I no longer buy Brewdog beer because they have stopped being an accredited member of the Real Living Wage Foundation and do not commit to paying their employees a real living wage. Our values do not align. I still enjoy great beer, but now buy it from other Real Living Wage Foundation breweries, mainly Verdant and Firebrand, two local businesses.
Make sure people know what your business values are, unless you are not proud of them; if that is the case you need to do some soul searching.
*********
Honesty Box
The seed of an idea for these business blogs has to grow and I nurture it until it is ready to harvest, then I prepare it so you can digest it. If you found the content useful please consider popping some money into the honesty box. Unlike buying eggs at the farm gate, you cannot put the cash in a box because you are reading this online. You can click on the Buy Me a Coffee link below which will take you to a page where by magic (nifty software) a small amount of money will disappear from your account and appear in mine. Don’t worry you are in control all the time. If the post wasn’t helpful, please leave a comment suggesting how it can be improved.
If you like what I say you can buy me a coffee if you want to.
===============
Business Thoughts 