Why Honesty Is An Asset To Your Business

Honesty – IF you ask me to boil down the secret of success in business or in life to just one thing, I will not hesitate to choose honesty. In all of my years in business, I cannot pinpoint any other virtue that is greater than honesty. It is so valuable in business that it can even take the place of cash.

Recently, a protégé of mine related his experience to me, which made me to have a reflection on the part that honesty plays in building an enduring business.

Before I tell you what she told me, I would like to give you the background to the story so that you will appreciate the significance of her experience.

The lady I’m writing about is one of those that SuccessDigest attracted into my world. She had written to say that the magazine had met her need and that she would like me to be her mentor. And that was how I came to be privy to all the steps she took to start her business and how, most importantly, I was able to study her closely, including her business practices.

One thing I noticed from day one was her desire to be honest. She goes an extra mile to ensure that she never cheated anyone, something that made me to take extra interest in her business.

Then, somewhere along the line, something went wrong with her business. Before you could blink an eyelid, this lady was owing her customers lots of money and she was up to her neck in debt. Right from the time she got tripped in her business up unto this time, she has been briefing me about the situation, keeping me up-to-date with the moves she was making to get her business back on track.

It has been a big struggle. But I kept encouraging her, telling her never to give in to the temptation to do any stupid thing; a stupid thing being looking for what seems like an easy solution to the problem but which is, in fact, a bigger trap.

Something like cooking up a crazy idea which greedy fools will fall for (you know those 419 schemes) and parting with their money only to discover that they have been duped. Such money will give you only a temporary relief. In the end, you will be found out, and all the things you’ve been trying to hide, will come into the open.

So far, she has been heeding my counsel. And with every passing week, she is going closer to the end of the dark tunnel. But then, something really shocking happened to her. Now, I’ll let her tell her story in her own words.

“It was around midday when I received this call,” she tells me. “I remember vividly the mood I was in. I had just paid off one of the clients we owed and I was thanking God for helping me to reduce the number of our creditors.

“My cellphone started to ring. I picked it up and tried to see who it was that was calling me. Obviously, this caller wasn’t among those I had stored their numbers. ‘Who could this be?’ I asked as I pressed the button to answer the call.

“’I’m calling from the Financial and Economic Crime Commission,’ the voice at the other end said. My heart skipped a beat when I realized where the call originated from. I held my breath as I listened to what the caller had to say.

“The caller started by asking how my business was doing. I narrated what we were going through lately and the efforts we were making to ensure that all our creditors were settled.

“‘Keep up the effort, ‘the caller said. ’We have some complaint about your business. But although you won’t know this, I‘d done business with you before I got this job. And you handled my business in a totally honest way. I was satisfied.

“That’s why I had to call to find out what had gone wrong with your business. Continue to do your best to pay off your creditors. Even though we are not moving in against you now, that’s not to say we won’t, if we continue to get complaints from the public about your business.

“As you may know, we cannot protect your business or any other business for that matter. So, find a way of settling your creditors in a timely manner or we shall move in against you’.

“When the call ended, I intuitively went on my knees and started praising God, tears of joy and sorrow filling my eyes. What? A call from the dreaded FECC? Suppose this caller had not done business with me before? Or suppose I had being dishonest in any way with this person?”

I was deeply moved as I listened to her story. Her act of honesty, which she built into her business practice, has saved the day for her. What would have happened to her, if she was not running a straight-forward, totally honest business, is better imagined than experienced.

I said to her: “Accept my congratulations. That was a close call. I just pray that you will soon be in a position to settle all your creditors and continue in business with honesty as your watch-word.”

Have you learnt a lesson from my protégé’s experience? I trust you would, if you’re smart. You see, I’ve personally discovered that without honesty, you cannot build an enduring business. That’s why my wife and I put a premium on dealing with our public with absolute, unconditional honest way.

The price of dishonesty is too heavy and we are not prepared to pay it. My wife and I have zero tolerance for it. That informs the things we do in our business. For example, very early in our business career, when my wife was still dealing directly with our distributors, she was in the habit of setting aside any money that an agent overpaid her in error until the agent showed up a week later to pick it up.

The distributors concerned were usually shocked when she returned their money to them. In the first place, they had no idea that they had overpaid her. So when she returned such money to them, it was like, ‘Hey, who’s this woman? Are you real?’

Some of our customers sometimes could not believe their eyes when they walk into our premises (or write to us) to ask for a refund on our products that have money-back guarantee and they are paid the money without being grilled about why they’re asking for their money back.

Some of our customers who are expecting trouble for asking for a refund, would usually write a lengthy email to me explaining why they don’t like the product they had bought and wish to have their money-back. After reading such emails, I usually respond with a few lines saying they didn’t need to go into the trouble of writing this long explanation. “Hey, you don’t like the product, right? Fine. Then, have your money back. No hard feelings.”

The truth is, without trust, you cannot gain customers’ confidence. And without customers expressing confidence in your business, you cannot have a solid customer base that will sustain your business.

Let me give you an example of how far we go to ensure that we are able to keep our promises to our customers. I have an information product that is doing very well in the market now. The product is called Home Based Instant Money Earner Business System.

This info product sells for N10,000 and it has SIX months money-back guarantee. Six months is a long time. But in order for us to ensure that anyone who buys the product can get a refund within the stipulated 180 days (six months), we have a dedicated account for this product into which we pay all the sales proceed from this product. The only time we have drawn money from this account since we started selling this product is when we are making a refund to a customer.

No amount of financial pressure will ever make us take a kobo from that account until the expiration of 180 days. That way, we are confident that there will be no story telling when anyone wants their money back.

Why am I sharing this story with you? I want you to know that honesty is an asset to your business. Don‘t deal fraudulently with your public. It doesn’t pay.

For those who are amazed at the level of trust that the public has in our business, this is one of the secrets. At Complete Communications Limited, for example, a staff tried to mess up our promotion, corrupting the process of getting the winner for the star prize, which was a brand new car.

Our readers were surprised when we published what had gone wrong, exposing the culprit, and going over the process again to ensure that a true winner of the car emerged.

As fate would have it, a member of SuccessDigestLeaders’ Club turned out to be the winner of the car. This member proudly drives the car to our monthly Business Leadership Forum. And I cannot tell you how thrilled l am each time I see him in that car, knowing that our desire to deal honestly with our public at all times enabled him to own it.

I can go on and on about the asset that honesty is to your business. But I believe I’ve made a strong enough case for it. If you wish to build a business that will endure, in which, on its 20th anniversary you will be able to, as I‘m doing, roll out the carpet and invite friends and associates to celebrate with you, then pay attention to honesty. Let it be a corner stone in your business. And you’ll never go wrong.

First published in July, 2004.