8 Universal Principles to Survive in Business

No matter how big or how little you are, no matter if you’re a start-up, an SME or a large, established organization, whether you provide a product or a service, you do it with gusto and passion, with commitment to what the customer aspires, and you deliver what you promised. The trouble is that often enough, it's easy to forget what we're in business to do: serve a need. Whether it’s a product or service, we're always meeting somebody’s need.

As a service provider myself, I believe in and honour the following universal principles of business, and I would expect nothing less as a customer: 

1 Trust

Every business relationship is about trust. When we decide to do business with a company it’s because we trust them, and especially when it's a service provider - we trust that the person is competent to provide that service. Especially if they have come referred. We trust that we will get what we paid for and we will get it when we expect to get it. We trust that our expectations and thus, our needs will be met.

2 Confidence

With trust comes confidence, so that we can let go and just be the client. We don’t need to tell our service provider how to do their job. We just let them do their job, so we can carry on with our lives and do our job. When there's no confidence, and we're constantly on our toes chasing the service provider, we don't have peace of mind becoming the client.

3 Continuity

Business is never about today and the short-term. If a service provider is shabby and cannot deliver, it’s because they’re in it for the short-term. Good business is about creating and building long-term relationships and as clients, we get more comfortable working with the same service provider over and over again – because they know us and they understand us. Every time we start a new business relationship, we have to begin from scratch. We create a new learning curve not only for ourselves but for the service provider, so it makes perfect sense to want to want long-term repeat clients.

4 Credibility

We hire a service provider because that company or person can do something we cannot, or they can do it better than we can, or our time is better served doing our business. So, whether or not service providers say they are the experts or the leader in their field is irrelevant. As a client, when we hire them, it’s because we think they know how to do their business. We think that they won’t fumble, short-deliver or not deliver. If service providers say they can, then they should! Credibility with a capital C is what creates longevity in business. If a service provider loses credibility, whatever they do is not called marketing. It’s not called selling. It’s called struggling.

5 Reputation

No businessperson wants a bad reputation. Yet, if they fail to deliver, if they leave us with unmet expectations, if they don’t do everything within their power and resourcefulness to live up to our needs and their promises, it’s the same as taking our money and running. It’s the same as stealing. A bad reputation is a never-ending downward spiral. Instead of making profits, service providers with a bad reputation will spend more time, effort and money rebuilding their reputation and getting us to trust them again.

6 Importance

Service providers must treat every customer like we're the most important thing to them. Without customers, without us, they have no business being in business. Without customers, without us, there is no business. Every customer that a service provider takes on deserves the same attention as any other customer. If service providers think they cannot commit their resources to us - whether we're big or small, they should have the courage to say "No, I do not have the resources to serve your needs at this moment." They might lose us as a customer, but they won't fail to deliver.

7 Focus

The old adage that "The Customer is Always Right" is evergreen. Service providers can't go wrong if they keep this in mind. When we go to a service provider, we know what we want. We may not know how we're going to get it - that's their job - but we know the outcome we want. We don't need excuses, just an assurance that they're focussed and that they know what they're doing. Service providers that constantly argue with us and shove things down our throat are not trying to understand our needs.

8 Learning

Service providers should understand that we provide them with opportunities to learn. When they service us, they keep learning about better ways to meet our needs and how they can do it better, faster and cheaper for us. They not only develop their capability but learn about their potential to do something better, keep raising the bar and grow.

A service provider that operates on some obscure principles other than these is working hard to trash their business. They have forgotten about the customer and the reason they exist. 

Coach Rohaizan

Get to know me at Rohaizan.com