Ethics and your business

 

Your business can suffer from perceived unethical behavior on your part, or that of an employee. It does not have to be real or illegal to hurt your business. Some of the illegal things are bait-and-switch, harassment, discrimination for various reasons or employee intimidation. Unfulfilled verbal agreements can be illegal, but even if they are not, the word spreads and your business can suffer.

 

So what do you do to minimize these issues? You develop a detailed business guide and be sure all employees and associates get it. You live by it yourself as well.

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorida.net

 

 

Liability

 

Your small business may have a liability issue develop at some point in time. Perhaps an employee, customer or someone else makes a claim. What do you do?

 

Check the exposure of your business and obtain the appropriate insurance coverage BEFORE any incident. Look at coverage for the product, facilities, directors and officers. Also be sure the form of your business protects your assets. Consult a good insurance agent/company.

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorid.net

 

 

 

 

 

Law & Regulation

 

Small business of all sizes have to comply with both federal and state labor laws. You must know the rules. Some of the issues are:

 

Definition of employees

Overtime

Harassment

Discrimination

Unions

Equal opportunity

Termination

Permits

Insurance

 

Is your business in order?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorida.net

 

A Bad Restaurant Example

My wife and I recently went to an upscale local restaurant. It is “upscale” because of the location on the waterfront, linen tablecloths, limited menu and its high prices, none of which was a surprise to us. Unfortunately even with all those things going for it, along with very good tasting food, the service took it down a number of notches. The waitress, when she finally arrived, was unable to respond to two simple questions. Question one: Could we be served a meal noted on the menu as not served after 6 PM? It was 6:30 PM. Question two: what was the price of a menu item noted as “market price”?

Oh yes, we ordered a bottle of wine while waiting for the answers. Ten minutes later she returned to our table with two wine glasses and an answer to question two ONLY. No wine and no answer to question one. Upon reminding her to get an answer to question one, she went away for another ten minutes. Then the wine showed up. Then an answer to question one…NO! We prepared for this with a backup item and ordered it, along with the high priced other item we selected. The waitress never came back to the table to pour any wine. We filled our own glasses, but did not finish the bottle. It is customary in this town to take an unused bottle of wine from a restaurant, sealed to your home. When the waitress was asked to package the wine she said: “we do not do that!” We said: “yes you do, ask the manager! She returned some fifteen minutes later with the appropriate packaging, but we had to ask her again to bring the bill. She did not return to the table to pick up the credit card. I walked to the bar to pay the bill, shorted the tip to make my displeasure noticeable, and left. We will not return or recommend this place to anyone.

 

What would you have done? If this was your business what would you expect to happen?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorida.net

 

 

 

Value of Service

 

You have a small business servicing the boating industry. Four years after you installed four of your products for one of your regular customers, he reports that three out of the four have cracked and water is leaking into his boat. The original installation cost the customer over $4,000.00, and he says either the material or the installation was inferior.

What do you do?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorid.net

 

Condominiums and trees

So you finally set up your new business in a location that provides adequate internal floor space. The location also has as an exterior court yard with a beautiful shade tree near your door with seating for those friends and family waiting for your customers. After all, this is Florida and shade is important. You recognized that most of your customers travel through the area with friends and/or family, some not likely to purchase your products or service. For example, if you have a women’s shop these could be boy friends, husbands, children, etc. But you know you want that woman in your shop. Your shop could be one that a man would frequent, it could be the girl friend, wife, children, etc. that wait outside.

So your shop does well over a number of years and you are pleased with progress. A few years ago you accepted the offer to purchase the Condominium property you have rented.  One Monday morning, you show up and find that the beautiful shade tree has been cut off at its base, with the stump left at ground level. No notice, no discussion, just GONE. You recall that over the years there were Condo board discussions and meeting minutes that have addressed potential tree removal in other parts of the property, but not one word about your shade tree.

You recognize that your business will be negatively impacted as a result of the missing shade tree. Upon asking the Condo board about it they tell you it was a dying tree, a message you find hard to believe as you saw it every day. You ask around, including the landscaping crew that took it down. You determine the tree had one dying branch that could have been pruned to save the tree. You also find that the plans do not include removing the stump and replacing the tree. Instead the plan is to plant a small tree eight feet away, and that much further away from your shop.  You also determine that this new tree will not shade your shop. The Condo rules prevent you from shading you shop front yourself.

What do you do?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit us at: www.scoresouthflorida.net

 

Bait and Switch means trouble

As is normal for my wife and I during one of our many road trips, my wife selected a hotel for an overnight from a hotel guide. She called ahead and obtained an unsolicited price quote that was a few dollars less than the guide stated. Upon confirming the reservation and offering a credit card the clerk told her it was unnecessary as they had plenty of rooms available.

When we arrived the same clerk told her the price was 50% higher than he quoted on the phone an hour earlier. A heated discussion was then under way. As we were tired, I suggested we pay the higher rate and took obvious note of the clerk’s name tag. When he saw that move on my part he closed his computer screen and stated that “we will not have any room available for you now.”  He went on to state that he has a “right to select who to do business with.” We were agreeing to his raised price, but he was refusing service. He never said the hotel was filled or there were no available rooms. It was obvious he had been caught attempting to implement a bait and switch and was going to be reported.

We drove across the street to another hotel for the evening. Wrote a letter to the hotel chain corporate management and copied the BBB in the area, in each case identifying the clerk by name and suggesting that he be fired. Hopefully the firm did just that. In any event, we will not stop at that hotel again and we will let our friends know of it at well.

What would you do in a similar situation? How would your business react?

 

Steve Koenig, SCORE Counselor

Visit is at: www.scoresouthflorida.net