14 ways to be kind to your business

We have heard about this — be kind to people, be kind to your family, be kind to your neighbors and also be kind to animals.

But did I read it right — being kind to your business?

Yes. You read it right!

While we talk about being kind, we usually talk about being kind to people, or  being kind to one’s own self. It is also possible and very important to be kind to the business that you are part of.

Many people have a narrow vision of business being just a money making platform. Some have slight better view of adding value to customers. Business on the other hand, if you look at it holistically, is a wonderful platform that helps and adds value to entire humanity and life-ecosystem.

What is, by the way, is a business or a business organization?

From a larger perspective, business is a living entity, like people and animals. A business is very much like you and me. Like human beings, business has a name, personality and its own culture.

Businesses are born (incorporated) and they die one day (wound up) like humans or other living creatures.

From a legal perspective, a business is very much like a human being and a person by itself. Like people, a business can own assets and have liabilities of its own.

Like an individual, a business can sue others and be sued by others in the court of law.

We should understand that a business is like a baby or a minor which cannot talk or act on its own.

Why I said a business is like a baby is, it needs support of its trustees, directors and leaders to act and to accomplish its goals. A baby acts through its parents. In the same way a business acts and does other activities with the help of its agents who are trustees or directors.

The way we are kind to people, we also need to be kind to businesses that we are part of.

We usually treat people kindly because you can see them physically, they are in front of you, they speak and they have emotions. Also oftentimes, we are paid back in the same currency in human relations, when we are not kind.

On the other hand, businesses cannot speak for itself. It is easy to be ignorant and not be kind to your business since it does not have sixty kilograms of physical form and does not cry or make demands like people do.

Being kind to your business is the responsibility of every trustee, director, and team member. There are many ways how we can be kind to the business that we are part of.

Being kind to your business means not hurting the business in any way — small or big.

Here are 14 simple ways to be kind to your business.

1.Being Ethical

Being ethical without resorting to shortcuts, in running a business, is an important way of being kind. Though taking shortcuts, I mean being unethical, can benefit the organization in the short run, it destroys the long term viability and suitability of an organization. There are many organizations, such as Microsoft, GE, Infosys, Wipro and other organizations worldwide which have shown the way and set an example for running a business ethically and bringing sustainability.

2.Treating customer as your boss

Being kind means, we build a growing customer base for the business. If the business is a train, customers are its engines. A customer base is built by developing a trust-able relationship with them. It should go beyond product, service, deliver and money. As Subrto Bakchi of MindTree righty said “ The key to winning the customer’s business (and hence creating a customer base) is to be able to connect, to tunnel a path to their feelings, and to come across as hungry, willing, genuine, trustworthy and above all interesting”.

Being kind means, treating customer as your god or your boss.

In the words of Sam Walton, there is only one boss. The customer. He can fire everyone in the company from Chairman on down, by simply spending his money somewhere else. If we are not kind to customers, we will get fired, though slowly and oftentimes in an unnoticeable way.

3.Being kind to team members

Being kind to every team member is being kind to business. How can you expect your team to be motivated and nice to customers when they are not happy where they work? Without a doubt, the most important ingredient to success is people.

Being kind to business means, keeping every one in the team happy and motivated. We sometimes unknowingly or temporarily hurt others who part of the business. Hurting leaves lasting memories and not overwritten by good deeds done earlier or later. A happy team is far more productive and adds to being kind to business.

4. Treating every one with utmost respect and value

Being kind means treating every one — team members, vendors or service providers, customers and government agencies, and others who support — with utmost respect and value. The business exists because of everyone in the ecosystem. It goes beyond people who are within the four walls of the organization.

5. Maintaining healthy balance sheet

To be kind is to allow a business to have healthy balance sheet and profit and loss account, at any given point in time. A healthy balance sheet means you do not have too much liabilities or liabilities which are past due. A healthy balance sheet means you do not have too many unused or unusable assets. A healthy balance sheet means you have assets which are put to good use. A healthy balance sheet means a good net worth (assets — liabilities) that grows with time.

6. Maintaining healthy salary or income for your businesses

Like human beings, businesses need a regular and consistent healthy salary every month. Salary for a business is its healthy operating margin. The operating margin is sales minus all operating expenses. A Healthy and regular operating margin is required in business so that the businesses can pay bills and save for future needs or emergency needs, like human beings typically do. So to be kind is to ensure a healthy salary (Operating margin) for the business, month to month, quarter to quarter and year-on-year.

7. Having  payables and receivables under control

Being kind means having reasonable accounts payables or accounts receivables. Too much or too old (aged beyond limits) accounts payables or accounts receivables are not good for business. If the terms of your invoice (to customers) is payment within 30 days, then accounts receivables, as a whole, should be approximately 30 days of sales at any given point in time.

As individuals, we do not feel very comfortable if we owe a considerable amount of money to someone or someone else owes a good amount of money to us and there is no clarity on paying back the money (by us or someone). The same is true with business.

8. Every transaction reflects truth 

Being kind means, we do not manipulate. It means we do not under invoice or over invoice. It means every transaction reflects truth in terms of numbers.

9. Account only business expenses

Being kind means, we account only business expenses. Non-business expenses, as the name suggests, are not relating to business and should not be accounted and paid for.

10. Having fair and balanced pricing of products or services

Being kind means, you do not charge unreasonably high prices to customers or unreasonably low prices to customers. Both will be detrimental to the long term health of the business.

11. Devoting fair amount of quality time

To be kind is to is to devote good amount of quality time for the business. The time meant for organization (say 9 to 6) is organization’s time. We all need to make sure those 9 hours are fully and productively used for business purposes. Occasionally we may use work time for personal purposes — this is not good except for emergencies. One argument is we all use home time for work and hence why not work time for home or personal use?

We may do temple or church related activities at home, but we will not carry home activities to temple or church. To be kind is to treat business as a temple or church.

Similarly, business resources are for business purposes. To be kind is to use business resources — be it money or other resources or time — only for business use.

12. Taking risks that benefit the business

Being kind means, taking risks that benefit the business.

We intentionally send out our small eight-year-old daughter or son to buy groceries in the neighborhood stores with the intention that they learn and grow, though there are few risks involved.

Same way, being kind means, taking enough risks so that business can learn and grow. Being kind also means, not taking too many or unreasonable risks that put the life of a business in danger.

13. Don’t rush

Being kind means, like a plant, allowing and facilitating a business to grow steadily. A 25% or 30% year-to-year growth can be considered steady for a business in a steady state.

14. Be Balanced

Wavering to the extreme, like a pendulum, is easy but not beneficial and not kind to the business. Being kind means being balanced in all acts of business and walking the Buddha’s middle path.

We, as a team, at HelloLeads, consciously try and practice these principles of being kind to business.