Truly successful businesses aren’t merely money-making machines.
They actually represent a tremendous opportunity to make life more pleasant and the world a better place if they’re operated for such a noble cause.
There’s a commonly held belief business success is the result of selling as many products or services as possible to as many consumers as possible at the highest price possible while paying the lowest possible wage and raw material costs to make as much money as possible. This is a limited perspective that leaves those involved feeling taken advantage of; vastly undervalued; and, most important, unhappy.
Truly successful businesses reflect a more comprehensive and inclusive perspective.
Their approaches benefit the many and not the few and create as much happiness and success as possible for customers, team members, owners, and the community while generating a profit in the process. This balanced approach to success takes all players into account, spreading the fruits of everyone’s labor far and wide for the betterment of the whole.
This comprehensive approach begins with the lifeblood of any successful business — its CUSTOMERS.
- If they’re not happy with the products and services provided to them in exchange for their hard-earned money, they won’t return and likely will talk about your company in unsavory ways.
- When you think about your customer base, it’s important to see them as human beings who’ve chosen to do business with you and not merely dollar signs adding to your bottom line. When customers are valued and treated with respect, integrity, and care, they become over time raving fans of you, your team, and your business. The happiness and success of everyone increases.
The same principle applies to your TEAM MEMBERS.
- Without them, your company wouldn’t function.
- Without their dedication, it would be impossible to operate a high-quality business.
- Their agreements to exchange large portions of their lives to earn a living shouldn’t be taken for granted. Like you, team members have dreams of happiness and success. Their families depend on them just as yours depend on you.
- Your team members are the conduit between your business and your customers. They’re not cogs in the wheel of your business. They’re human beings. The more you care for your team members, the more likely they are to care for you. When you value and treat them with dignity, they’ll give their best to you and your customers. The happier and more fulfilled they are, the stronger your business will be and the more success everyone will enjoy.
When you operate from the mindset others want to be just as happy and successful as you do, you’ll see and treat people differently.
Through this larger perspective, team members and customers cease to be objects to achieve your financial dreams. Instead, they become vital links in a chain that creates happiness and success throughout the process of doing business.
It’s true you can’t please everyone. Some team members and customers will never be satisfied with even exceptional efforts. In the pursuit of greater happiness and success, you will need to let certain team members and customers go.
Companies that operate from a win-win-win perspective in which happy customers, team members, and owners succeed are the most rewarding companies to do business with, work for and run. That’s because these businesses give as well as receive.
There’s more to business success than power, prestige, profits, and status.
When business is conducted in ways that honor and support everyone who contributes their time and resources to its well-being, the business is positioned to serve the greater purpose of creating happiness and success in the world. Its mission becomes a more encompassing endeavor, one not solely focused on creating wealth for owners and investors.
In my work with companies over the years, I’ve repeatedly witnessed the dramatic differences between businesses that truly care about their team members, customers, and community and those that don’t.
In truth, your customers, team members, community and you are all in business together. It’s a symbiotic relationship. When you operate from a balanced perspective — one that includes the best interests of everyone involved, not just yours —– your business will produce happiness, well-being, and even more success.
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This article was written for and published in collaboration with The Business Times newspaper. Access the article here.
