4 Ethics You Can't Ignore in Entrepreneurship

Let’s talk about ethics in entrepreneurship - no, not the boring kind. I'm talking about the ones that create instant impact, income, value, and joy for you as a business owner.

Ethics are the character of your business. They are also a reflection of you as the entrepreneur since you’re the one defining the ethics of your business and brand.

In all my years working with startups and small businesses, I rarely hear ethics brought up. At first, I wasn’t sure why and now I am realizing it’s because a lot of entrepreneurs don’t take the time to define their ethics – at least, not nearly as in-depth or often as things like their mission statement.

The rules or policies of a company are often indicative of their core values and ethical standards, but let’s talk about that because many people don’t even know where to start when it comes to the topic of ethics.

Amazon, for instance, has a core value and leadership principle of “Customer Obsession.”

On their team, leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They prioritize the trust of each customer and pay more attention to them than the competition. This indicates ethics of honesty, loyalty, integrity, and transparency within the organization – all beautiful and important ethics.

Integrity and transparency in particular are of interest to me.

Let’s start with transparency.

When most people think about transparency, they think that they need to be vulnerable and open about their personal life in their business. I completely disagree. If this is part of your brand, sure, it can be a great way to build trust with your audience.

It’s not necessary to bring your personal life into your business.

One of the most common questions I’m asked as a coach and strategist is, “how do I be more vulnerable and transparent about my life and what's going on behind the scenes with my audience?”

They ask because they’re told it’s important for their growth. They’re told it’s a requirement for business owners today.

For many brands, transparency is more of a tactic than an ethic being exercised.

I think if you are? drawn to the idea of sharing more about you and just don't know how, this is a great question. But if you're just trying to be vulnerable or transparent to fulfill a requirement you think exists for businesses to succeed today, don't do it.

I was watching a show on Netflix, I think it was called “A Call to Courage” by Brene Brown, and? she brought up this idea of being vulnerable and said, “oversharing is not being vulnerable – and vulnerability without boundaries is also not being vulnerable.”

This is spot on.

I’ll give you an example. A few months ago, a CEO went live here on LinkedIn crying because he had to lay off employees. He got so much backlash for it because people said if you're crying or experiencing any genuine emotion in the moment, the last thing you would think to do is pick up your phone and record it.

This is not vulnerability.

So, before you do anything in your business I invite you to think:

• Is this true to me?
• Is this true to who I am?
• Is this true to how I'm feeling?
• Is this something I desire to share?

Don’t just share for the sake of sharing or because you think you should or that it’s what people want from you.

Another topic around transparency that I want to share is the lack of transparency in entrepreneurship today.

There are so many people who talk about their $50k months – which is amazing by the way! – but who also make it seem like they do it EVERY month when they only launch twice a year. There are also people who say that they're doing $100K launches when they've made no money all year because they build up to sell their offer every 12 months.

In both of these scenarios, they're making $100K, which is phenomenal and deserves to be celebrated, but saying they're making $50k/month also makes it sound like that's happening every single month which would put them over half a million a year in revenue. This can be very misleading, especially considering most of these people are coaches or helping people hit similar benchmarks in their businesses.

Then there are the people who make $50k every month but spend $40k on ads to do it.

For the record, there's nothing wrong with dropping money on ads to grow your business - it’s smart!

The problem exists when people are working with you because of your reputation and when they ask how you hit your goals, you don't give them your ad strategy. You tell them to grow organically or follow some other advice in a cookie cutter offer that’s not even close to your current strategy or approach.

This is actually the perfect segue into the next business ethic of integrity.

Do what you say you're going to do and honor your promises to people.

Don't make a money-back guarantee if you don't plan to give people their money back or make it impossible for people to get their money back.

If you make people prove they watched every video, went through every resource, and showed up to every call, you may as well not offer a guarantee at all. Instead, just make your offer so good that you can offer a true money-back guarantee that nobody asks you for, or if they do, you say okay and give it to them.

I see too many people across multiple Industries guaranteeing specific results and not honoring them. When I meet a potential coaching client and they ask if I can get them to $10K months, I guarantee my offer will give them everything they need to hit $10K a month.

I can do this because many of my clients have achieved such results (some far greater). That said, the money is not my focus, nor do I want it to be theirs.

Money is the byproduct of great a product and exceptional service.

So, I want them to focus on showing up and doing the work. To love the work and have fun doing it, not stressing over every dollar.

I’ve done this before and always ended up less focused on my boundaries, my Joy, and the processes that actually got me to $10,000. I found out the hard way, more than once, that when you focus on the money it's very hard to make it.

It’s like the old saying, “a watched pot never boils.” If you're just thinking about making money, every time you talk to someone you're thinking, “how can I get them to say ‘yes’ to my offer so I can make money” and not “how can I create $100K worth of value so $10K becomes inevitable this month?”

You aren’t showing up to have genuine conversations with people. You aren’t asking good questions, being fully honest or open, loving your work, serving at your highest level – all things I like to focus on and feel make me the most successful.

Where are you in integrity and out of Integrity in your business right now?

There are probably some areas where you're falling out of integrity – maybe not all day every day, but sometimes, and it’s important to be mindful of this. It’s natural.

I put integrity at the very top of my list or priorities, and there are still times where I think maybe I need to do that better or need to rethink that because it doesn't feel completely in Integrity for me anymore. It happens!

Sometimes, something you initially created to be in integrity falls out of Integrity when you evolve and grow as a business owner.

That’s why checking in as you grow and your offers naturally evolve is important. Don't just accept the status quo for what it is – challenge it often and question it.

Lean in, and not just in terms of integrity but in many ways!

This is a great practice across every area of your life and business.

This brings up another one of my favorite topics, which is personal accountability. I think too many of us play the blame game very quickly. I’ve definitely been and sometimes still am guilty of this! I used to say that I couldn’t guarantee any results, because how do I know that you're going to show up and do the work?

Then I realized it's on me to get you excited to show up and do the work! It’s on me to make a program that works for you. To show up and guide you through the process to ensure you’re getting what you came for (and more).

I want to make it inevitable for you to win. I take it seriously.

A client in my past program, The Breakthrough Lab, once asked, “How do you not break your boundaries when we're all on calls with you three times a week, asking questions in the Facebook group, submitting our content for your personal review every month? How do you honor that without overworking and still showing up at your highest level – it's blowing my mind that you would even offer that now!”

I told her very simply that I take radical responsibility for my boundaries.

If someone is able to break one of my boundaries, then it’s on me.

I will re-evaluate my fulfillment processes and audit my program to fix what is broken. I need to take responsibility for how and how often people are able to take advantage of the benefits they’re given as a member. It’s on me to make sure that my boundaries are honored and I’m not burning out.

If something isn't working for me or isn't working for the group, I take radical responsibility for that and will fix it. I’m not going to complain or blame anyone.

I will simply learn and become more valuable by creating better materials, deliver on what is being asked of me, supporting my people, and finding the ideal way to make it work for everybody without sacrificing their happiness or mine.

Too many people let fear run their businesses – the fear of people leaving them, or the fear that they aren’t able to figure something out or make it work.

I’ve put their head down and suffered because of this so many times! I just can't do it anymore, and I refuse to be burnt out or make compromises that don’t serve my clients as well on day one thousand as they were served on day one.

I also welcome the opportunity to take responsibility for when things fail so I can learn from it and change things for the better. I find a lot of value in sitting in your failure and learning from it instead of avoiding it or blaming something outside of you.

The same goes for success. When I succeed, I take credit for it! I don’t chalk it up to luck or outside circumstances. That feels terrible! Honestly, this was harder for me to do than to own my failures. To sit with my success and say “I am amazing!” and celebrate me – yeah, that took some practice.

Where are you taking personal responsibility for the results you create – good and bad?

As a CEO, it's important that you're in control of your results and own them. That’s what makes you a more decisive person and ethically responsible leader.

The last ethic kind of ties all of this together, and it’s a bit of a different one than people would think of when they think of ethics: care.

Caring about people influences all of the other ethics in your business.

When you care about people, you take personal responsibility for your side of the relationship, you’re transparent, and you’re in your highest integrity when serving that person.

You're not going to lie to people that you care about, betray them, take advantage of them, take credit for things that they deserve the credit for, abuse their trust, or steal from them.

Caring about people means showing up for them as your highest, best self. It means telling the truth even when it's hard. It means showing up not just because you feel you have to but because you really want to be there for them.

Caring about people means listening to them, honoring their wishes, and working with them as a partner in many ways.

It’s similar to a marriage. When you care about someone, you treat them well and with respect. You love making them feel special, and it's important to you that they're happy.

Maybe this one isn’t a classic business ethic, but it's one of mine and something I don't take lightly. I commit to care for everyone that I work with, even if that means letting go or understanding when I am not the person to help them even when I’d like to be.

At the end of the day, I look after their best interests and accept them for who they are because that’s what I want people to do for me, too.

Now it's time to reflect on what matters to you as a business owner, what your ethics are, and who you're being as a leader today.

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