Why are Ethics Important In a Business

This is a true story and I hope it has never happened to you! Enjoy the read & I’d love your responses!

Some people on Twitter and Facebook have been making all sorts of of comments as to why Ethics are Important in a Business?

A few years ago when I was crazily stoked doing alot of Home Parties in the candle business, I found I was getting a tonne of packages sent to my home by FedEx.

The company I was with was all about ‘customer service’ and at that time (this was probably over ten years ago) when you hosted a party with alot of different companies delivery could well be over 8 weeks! Since I was in a very remote part of BC, Canada, our area easily added on a few more weeks.

My company stood apart and instead of having products being shipped through the post office, they decided to use Federal Express and they ‘ate up’ the additional costs to make sure people were receiving their products in less than three weeks.  This was something very good that I utilized in my selling features.

Since I was a leader I received many things for nothing and had pieces shipped almost on a weekly basis.  I also let some hostesses use my address if they were far away and not within Federal Expresses delivery. In this way I probably received two to three parcels, or bundles every week.

Let’s just say that the delivery people definitely knew who I was, and got my parcels to me in a very quickly and timely manner!

One day, when no one was home and it was pretty warm out, I had a nice cool shower, dried off and remembered I had a stack of clean clothes in the laundry room.  So, I just padded through the house in um…nothing but what the good lord gave us.

At that particular moment, my trusty FedEx dude was delivering a big pack of bundles on my back step.  Unfortunately for me, this of course was the fully glass door to my laundry room. Oops!

He was embarrassed, needless to say I was embarrassed, and I pretty much hid in my room for the better part of the day thinking “My professional life is ruined!”

In spite of this really embarrassing blunder, and trust me I’ve had many many more, I knew I had two choices:

1) I could let this embarassment hinder me in my business (I was already trying to think of how I could divert boxes to a different address….perhaps in a totally different city??) or
2) I could Face my embarrassment, laugh and learn from it, and keep on Keeping ON!

Good thing for me I chose Option number two because I would’ve missed some of the best money making years of my business if I didn’t. (Averaging about $4,200/week!)

Having a good sense of humor enabled me to ‘move forward’ instead of panic, fear and embarassment hold me back.

Now I’m sure that you have had some little ‘obstacle’ or ‘embarrassment’ in your business which has held you captive too.

Perhaps, it’s even held you back from stepping forward, facing your FEAR and I’m hear to tell you one clearly important thing:

Not Facing that Fear or Obstacle IS holding you back from having the Best years of your business financially!

I also knew that ethically I owed it to my customers, hostesses and consultants to stand up and Be the Leader, no matter what I was feeling inside.

Some of the other ways I feel that you can be ethical in your business are these:

1) Always do what you say you are going to! Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep.
2) Don’t let fear or embarrassment hinder you, learn from it, grow from it and teach others how to overcome that same fear.
3) Provide the best customer service you can.  My partner Charlotte wrote a great article on  the service recession which I agree is in a worse state right now than the ‘economic recession’.

 4) Keep your ‘focus’ on the why you are doing what you are doing! Is your intention to just sell a bunch of products to make a few quick dollars? or is your intention to build ‘relationship sales’ with your guests, hostesses and consultants? You need to decide that right now.
5) Keep on learning! Without learning how to be better, both personally and professionally, your business will sink taking you down in a spiral with it!

There are many other reasons I’m sure as to “Why are Ethics Important In a Business” but I just want you to think about where you are right now.

Are you happy with the results you are getting? Either in your business or your personal life?

My story today has made you laugh, I’m pretty sure, as well as made you think where your focus is!

What would be some benefits of working together with Designed for Divine Destinations:

• Learning new tips and ideas to help move your business forward, one great new idea can easily put $300 or $400 dollars back into your pockets!
• You can save yourself hundreds of dollars in childcare by turning your hobby into a full time business!
• Learn how to “Brand Yourself” no matter what business you are in! (this is Free BTW when you sign up for our Ezine, coolio!)
• How to Massively grow your Hostess list, so that you aren’t always bugging Friends and Neighbors!
• Learn how “Intended Focus” a 15min/day technique I have used  that will Allow you to Work LESS While Making More Money

One thing I myself have learned from my story above is that I always grab a towel now when I jog through my house!

As for the FedEx dude, he started wearing a camera around his neck when he came to make my deliveries!

Jody Maley
Owner & Speaker of DesignedforDivineDestinations.com

“Where its not just about the Destination, it’s the Journey to get There!”

 

Re-Starting your Biz after a BREAK!

• De-clutter your work-space! Set the egg timer to 30min’s/day and just make your space nice again!
• Decide right now what your official ‘office hours’ will be & stick to it! (the laundry can wait, or put in a load before you start!)   This also means that when work time is done, it’s DONE for that day!
• Set up some goal’s!
• Meet some new people! Go out to a ‘coffee group’ meet-up and see what others are doing!
• Get yourself some much needed training, now is a great time to get motivated and Learn something new!

How do I love Thee?

Kung Fu Panda

It’s my favorite personal development movie. Po is an excellent example of a person (or a panda bear) who is ready to move forward in life but who is stuck. He feels stuck in the soup making business with his dad but yet has a desire to become a Kung Fu master. How do we know he is ready to move on?

Read more

Detox

I found out that my body was toxic. My liver was hanging on to something that was toxic to me and causing me issues. What is it?

Read more

Empower your children

There are a lot of articles on child development. and there are some great articles out there on the subject. Lots of books and magazines and online sources do a great job at talking about raising kids. Jody wrote a great article on parenting styles that addresses integrity.

We learn a lot about parenting from our parents, we learn what to do and some of what not to do from them. Our parents taught us a lot and gave us what they knew. There are lots of family counselors that help us with the things we do not know from our own childhood experience. That can be helpful for some but what I found even more helpful was learning about myself.

With personal development I have learned more about myself and what got me to this point in life. I was raised in a military family and was encouraged my whole life to be independent. My parents worked on empowering me but there were things that disabled me. One example  is that when I was a kid and we went anywhere, my Mom always told me not to ask for things. Personal development helped me discover that not only can I ask for things, but should ask for things. I figured out that being “polite” doesn’t help me get sales. Then I thought about the fact that other kids come to my house and ask for things and I’m OK with that. So now I tell my kids it’s fine to ask but don’t ask for too much and always thank the hostess or host.

I have had to learn from my childhood that I felt a certain way about things but I can’t project that onto my kids. That is disabling for them. It keeps me from offering opportunities that they might enjoy. One cool, cloudy April Sunday, my son wanted to sell lemonade. I said yes and thought “no one is going to buy lemonade today”, I was so wrong, he made $11.  I let them try new things and let them decide for themselves how they feel about it after they try it. I do set necessary parameters but don’t manage the whole thing.

Many parents (especially women) want their house to look a certain way, we believe it’s a reflection on how clean we are. We think our house has to be spotless or clutter free. We clean it ourselves so it can meet this standard we think it should have even though we didn’t make most of the mess. We sometimes  figure it’s easier to clean, do laundry, etc. rather than get the rest of the family to contribute. It has to be an exact way (I have to confess, that’s the one I’m working on) or it’s not right. Now we can develop systems that work for us but they are able to use some creative thinking to resolve some problems like a system for their room or laundry.

We are not empowering our kids if we are doing everything for them. My oldest brother was married to a woman who believed that if her kids were working hard in school and getting good grades that they shouldn’t have chores. She did everything for them. How were these kids going to learn to do anything if she did it all for them? That is enabling a, child not empowering them. Those kids are going to expect someone to take care of those things even after they are adults. Even if your house isn’t perfect, kids should do chores. They contribute to the mess, they should contribute to clean up.

I have a relative who moved out of the house and he didn’t know how to do laundry, he was using fabric softener… his clothes were soft but not as much clean. His mom had done his laundry, cooked for him, cleaned up after him all his life and he got out into the world and couldn’t do anything for himself. That put him at a deficit.

Control is another thing that I found, through personal development, that I had to work with. Although I gave my kids chores to do, I was wanting them to do it perfectly and thoroughly I had to give that up. They won’t ever feel like they are doing it right if I constantly nit pick the way they do the chore. It does have to meet a standard but I need to be able to have a kid standard. I can’t eat off dirty dishes but I can ease up on how they fold their clothes. Part of the control issue was that I thought it was a bad reflection of me if something wasn’t up to my standard.If they go out in wrinkly clothes it needs to be their issue I shouldn’t manage my kids’ lives on how it makes me look but rather, how they want to appear. If they don’t care if their clothes are wrinkly then I need to let it go, and I have. One day when they are teens, they will figure out that their clothes are wrinkly and will work on folding or hanging their clothes so that they appear fresh.

Lots of articles on child development say “pick your battles” and I would say, determine what is important to you but more deeply, why it’s important to you. The main thing in parenting is to do an up close honest look at yourself and ask yourself some important questions. Look at your own childhood and find out how your parents empowered you and how they enabled or disabled you. What is important to you, really important; Not the surface “people will judge me” things but the standards you need to set in order to raise empowered kids. To find what’s really important to you as a parent about raising your kids, ask yourself some “how” and “what” questions. “Why” questions will only evoke emotion, “how” and “what” questions are for true exploration.

A kid isn’t going to be empowered because they have unwrinkled clothes, a kid is going to be empowered by self discovery and parents who encourage them to find a way to resolve issues. Kids are empowered by parents who help them discover their talents and skills and who foster problem solving skills. I am grateful for parents who encouraged me to solve my own problems. I will take it to the next level to encourage my kids to be productive and contributors.

I can’t control my kids every minute of the day. I can’t make them eat right, or be nice to other people or make good decisions about friends. What I can do, is teach them how to make wise decisions. I can’t watch over them everywhere and tell them how to live. My efforts are much better spent having frank and honest conversations with them about life. I can give them ideas on good thought processes and I can arm them with the ability to make good decisions on how they want to treat people, how to choose good friends, what to wear and even make wise decisions about drugs and sex.

Ask yourself, “Am I empowering my child? Or am I enabling my child?”