How to be a Responsible Small Business Person

We hear all the time that small business is a major social engine for economic growth. It also stitches us together as part of a common social fabric. Think of how much human interaction involves commerce. Now consider Baghdad. Insurgents out to create the most havoc frequently bomb markets. That’s where the world comes together. As a small business person, you have four major areas of responsibility.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Responsibility to Customers
   You owe your customers goods or services that work as promised, delivered in a timely manner. If you fall short in this effort you have to make good. The best way to promote you business is word of mouth which is why satisfied customers are so important. Customers prefer to do business with companies they trust and they’ll avoid companies they don’t trust.
2. Responsibility to Investors
   Treat your investors like partners, whether it’s through a personal loan or a stock offering. If you are fortunate enough to have your company ultimately grow into a publicly traded company, avoid the temptation of insider stock trading. You will always know ahead of the public where your profits are going. There is nothing wrong from making a large profit from your stake in your own business. It’s illegal if you increase your share prior to the announcement of being acquired or if you sell short just before a disastrous earning report. People will remember.
   
   In 1999 there was an energy company so intent on establishing a positive community image that it offered to pay the Houston Astros $100 million over 30 years to name the team’s baseball park after itself. Few remember that baseball was once played on Enron Field. The company is remembered now for other notorious reasons.
3. Responsibility to Employees
   When you hire somebody be aware that person is contributing one precious unrenewable resource, his time. You owe your employees respect, understanding and support. It is vital for any real employee satisfaction that you establish training and mentoring programs the moment one comes aboard, assessing her job performance and aligning her growth with the company’s.
4. Responsibility to Society
   Some would say that the primary responsibility of a business is to create new wealth. I’ve already covered environmental responsibility in a series of other postings. However, social responsibility goes deeper.
   
   I’ve written about Ben and Jerry’s. Now let’s look at Hewlett Packard, the manufacturer of the computer I’m using to write this. Remember that HP is a company with $91.7 billion in 2006 revenues that was started in a garage by William Hewlett and David Packard with an investment of $538.
   
   HP actively encourages workplace diversity in race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. In 2000, HP launched its Digital Village program, to establish computer centers on American Indian reservations and in the inner cities of East Palo Alto and Baltimore in an effort to bridge the digital divide.
   
   As HP puts it. “There is no substitute for personal and professional integrity; doing well and doing good can go hand in hand; and trust and respect have always been the cornerstones of our success… We strive to be a company that manages by inspiration, not fear; by sharing information, not guarding it; by empowering people to make decisions; and by unleashing people's talents for the common good.”