Do you remember when you first started your small business? Remember the excitement? Do you recall how it felt when the phone rang or someone walked in the door? First, let me commend you on entering a profession that is true to your passion, and furthermore, one that serves others.

In this article, I’m going to share with you some of the common mistakes that small business owners often make. If you’ve fallen prey to one or more of these, it simply means that no one told you about them yet. Once you know, then you can focus on solutions. And, perhaps you’ll find that you are already entirely on track, and this may re-affirm that you are headed the right way.

MISTAKE #1:
OBSESSION WITH THE SERVICES YOU PROVIDE OR THE PRODUCTS YOU SELL.

In business, we ideally view the products and services we sell as generic “black boxes” that either make money or don’t. Imagine you own a gas station – the old fashioned kind that just sells gas and maybe fixes cars (no mini-mart inside).

One day, a salesman comes to you and says “Hey, I want to put a soda machine in front of your gas station. You can buy cans of soda at $0.25 each and sell them for $1.25 each – you make $1.00 on every can of soda someone buys.” He offers to rent you the soda machine for $100 per month as long as you agree to have him be the one you buy soda from. You agree and find that you sell 20 cans of soda per day, or 600 per month. In other words, you make $600 per month selling soda, then pay the sales guy $100 of that for renting you the soda machine. In the end, you make $500 profit each month.

So, what does this have to do with running a small business?

You probably couldn’t care less about selling soda, may not drink it and may even emphasize how unhealthy it is for people. Exactly. And the gas station owner feels the same way. He couldn’t care less about soda or soda machines, but as a business owner, it’s a “black box” that earns him $500 per month in cash. He puts some stuff into the black box (rents the machine for $100 and fills it with soda) and money comes out of it ($500 in profits).

THE SOLUTION:

For any business to be truly successful, the owner needs to be able to step back and view it as a collection of “black boxes” that either generate money or support another black box in generating money. Evaluate each major method or strategy your company uses to make money. Let go of emotional attachment to things like favorite services or products – if they don’t make money for you, change them so they do, or eliminate them. If you can’t bring yourself to do this, acknowledge that this is an area of charity or contribution that your company participates in. But whatever you do, be honest with yourself.

Remember, if your business doesn’t make money, it won’t be around to help anyone in the future. Keep it profitable!

MISTAKE #2:
BEING IN A RUSH.

Business usually takes time. Our society is so wrought with instant gratification, we often overlook the fact that things take time. Just as the farmer can’t plant crops too late in the season, then try to “rush” them to grow, certain aspects of business take time. If you are trying a new type of advertising strategy, it might take three months before you can tell if it works or not.

THE SOLUTION:

Learn from someone else who has done it successfully before, and ask them how long they waited before seeing results. If we plan ahead and act early, we won’t be in such a rush at the end. For example, don’t think about holiday promotions in November, instead plan them in September in case some actions need to be taken early. We can often save money by starting early as well – after all, have you ever been to a workshop that cost more if you signed up last-minute than if you registered a month or two in advance? (Hopefully you use this strategy yourself with any programs you offer.) As you get better at a particular aspect of business, you’ll be able to do it faster, but in the beginning, it takes time. Be patient, evaluate your results and make changes as needed.

MISTAKE #3:
BELIEVING THAT TECHNICAL SKILL IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

So often, we believe that with lots of ability in our art we will succeed. We assume that if we enhance our skills and have perfect form that this will make our business more successful. Sadly, this has relatively little truth to it in business. Technical skill alone is not the key to success, and in fact, technical skill is only a small part of success. If business is slow, we often tend to consider getting more training, another certification or something like that. The real solution usually lies somewhere in business skills and management. Ask yourself about these areas of your business: Marketing, Sales, Accounting & budgeting, Customer service. I certainly don’t want to minimize the value of your mastery of your field – this is definitely important. Rather, I am emphasizing that in business, other things usually count more. I know it doesn’t seem right that someone who doesn’t have nearly the ability that you do should have all the clients, but that is generally the reality in business.

Consider the example of the most successful restaurant in history, McDonalds. Could you cook a better burger than they do? Of course – anyone could. It’s not their skill in making burgers that makes them such a success. They do the other stuff so well that people have learned to like their food.

THE SOLUTION:

Just as you can watch someone’s form and point out specific errors that they are oblivious to, you also have the potential to see your business in the same way. With the right perspective and knowledge, a business owner can very specifically identify a problem area and what needs to change. But only in rare cases is the problem actually the technical skill of services being delivered to the customer.

MISTAKE #4:
BEING SO EXCITED THAT YOU ARE DRIVEN BY EMOTIONS, NOT LOGIC.

Sometimes we get so attached to an idea – maybe one we created ourselves – that we forget to do a logical analysis. I remember a small store that sold specialty food products. The owner loved spicy food, so decided to offer hot sauces from all over the world. He expanded the concept such that a great deal of his inventory was essentially hot sauce. For months, he didn’t acknowledge that his sales had significantly decreased, because he was so excited about the idea that people love hot food – he loved hot food. Less than a year later, he was sadly forced to face the reality when he could no longer pay his bills and had to close the business.

It’s always easy to see it in other people, but very hard to see in ourselves. Is there a product service that you created, which for whatever reason has few sales? Consider areas of business where you are being guided by emotions, not facts.

THE SOLUTION:

When we are emotionally driven in business, our strengths become weaknesses. Self-confidence becomes arrogance, ambition becomes ruthlessness, quick-thinking becomes impulsiveness, strategic risk-taking turns to gambling. And one clear sign that emotions are taking over is that in discussions of a given topic, there is a clear need to “be right” instead of a striving to do what is best for the company.

The solution is simply to back away and treat it like the “Black box” we discussed earlier—it’s just a soda machine that makes money or it doesn’t. Another technique is to ask someone else for their honest opinion with the understanding that you will not interrupt them, or offer any feedback other than asking informational questions. Remember, successful business is driven by facts, not emotions.

MISTAKE #5:
NOT HAVING A BACKUP PLAN.

This one is pretty straightforward. Any time you try something new, at least have a rough idea of what you will do if it doesn’t work. When an airplane flies toward it’s destination, before it even takes off, the pilot always selects an alternate airport in case he can’t land at the original destination. And, he makes sure he has enough fuel to get there. He doesn’t plan all the details, but just knows what the alternative is and that there’s enough gas in the tank to make it.

THE SOLUTION:

I encourage you to do the same thing with any new business tactic. If you take a lot of money to invest in new product inventory, expecting you can make a killing selling it, have a backup plan. What would you do if it didn’t sell? What if it was a total disaster? In a case like this, you might decide that you could sell it at half it’s value to a large retailer, but at least it wouldn’t be a total loss. You want to make sure that you’re not going to go out of business if an idea doesn’t work. Always have a rough idea of a backup plan.

MISTAKE #6:
RUNNING OUT OF CASH.

This one sounds obvious, so let me clarify. This mistake is about having a plan for what needs to be done to create a successful business, but running out of money before it gets there. For example, suppose a new yoga studio owner has estimated that it will cost $150,000 to open the yoga studio, buy all needed equipment, supplies and inventory, and pay operating expenses for one year. After this point, the owner expects to have enough students, clients and customers that she will be able to cover the cost of all her monthly expenses (including paying staff and herself) and begin paying back the $150,000. However, imagine that getting things going ended up costing $200,000 and even at that, there isn’t much left for an advertising budget. After one year rolls around, she’s not even close to making enough money each month to pay expenses (in part because she didn’t have money for advertising), let alone repay the debt. She has run out of cash.

THE SOLUTION:

First, make your cost projections worst-case. A quick way of doing this is to figure out best-case, then double it. No kidding, you’ll be pretty close to the actual cost about 80% of the time. If you think it will cost $10,000, then make sure you have $20,000 available (but still try to do it in $10,000 and in fact, base your whole budget on $10,000). Next: Plan, Plan, Plan! So many people dive in without a plan, only to find out they spent lots of time and money on things that do not generate any return. Bottom line: Expect it will take twice as much cash as you think.

MISTAKE #7:
RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL.

Lots of people (and companies) have opened and operated successful businesses for years. There are people who know the answers to questions that frustrate you and problems that cost you money. One reason franchises are so successful is that they give a business owner answers to nearly every question regarding running the business.

THE SOLUTION:

So, don’t re-invent the wheel. I can’t emphasize this enough. There are people who know how to run a small business very profitably. Find them. Observe them. Talk to them. Model them. They may even be willing to actively mentor you. If you find a successful business similar to yours in a non-local area (that is, they don’t compete with you), the owner may be more than happy to share. If you need to hire consultants for marketing, web site design, business planning, accounting, and so forth, then do it. It’s expensive up front, but once you learn the right way to do things, you can either take it over on your own or hire someone lower-priced and tell them what to do.

Bottom line: If someone else has done it before successfully, learn from them before trying to figure it out on your own.

Business Strategy and capturing market share is somewhat similar in many regards to war strategy. How so you ask? Well below are the similarities listed for your consideration. And before I introduce them to you, I am not suggesting war is good or evil. I believe it is merely a formality of political impasse amongst humans and good or bad is irrelevant, as it just is.

Surely it would be best to have no wars and killing ones own species seems a bit problematic and nevertheless if you enemy is trying to kill you sometimes the defense of such leads to unfortunate circumstances.

Now then here are some parallels of business and war below and perhaps they will be of value to you for philosophical discussion?

1.) In war you have an opponent and your opponent wants what you have or you are trying to get what they have; market share.

2.) In war you fight many battles over the course of the war in many territories or markets.

3.) In war intelligence of your opponent is very important and in business you need to estimate you competitions next move.

4.) In war there are many aspect you need to control such as the air, ground and sea; in business you are also interested in controlling multiple market segments and servicing those customers better.

5.) In war you must be efficient with your supplies; such a fuel, food and such; in business efficiency means higher profits.

6.) In war you must hold the territories that you capture. In business you must maintain market share once you achieve it.

7.) In war you must defend your army and your country. In business you must defend your brand name and price points, by using many different methods.

Next time you are thinking about business strategy, winning markets and market share and then defending what you have achieved consider if you will the relationships to war strategy. In doing so you may see the game from another perspective and this may help your business.

10 Easy Tips to Help You Profit From Your Website

Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money online with their websites. Why not you? Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable. As with any good website however, you first need quality original content!

1. Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.

2. Affiliate Marketing - Make money referring your website traffic to other websites. Don’t have a product? That is 100% O.K. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.

3. Write an eBook - Sell your own idea or product. I know it sounds like a day dream, but people do this all the time. In fact, it is the most common method that people use to make money. Write an eBook, offer consultations, or make something people will use. In this category, you are only limited by your imagination.

4. Create an online directory - Sell text links. Add a directory area to your site and offer to place links to other web sites for a small fee.

5. Become a Paid Blogger. Offer to blog for companies. Blogging is fast becoming an important link building strategy for online companies. There are hundreds of small businesses that could benefit from a professional blog but, do not have the resources to hire a full time employee. You have a website, put it to use!

6. Open your own eBay store. Buy low, sell high. There is no easier place to sell than online with your own eBay store. You can concentrate on a particular type of product like coins and antiques or you can sell a wide variety.

7. Host an online competition. Offer prizes for the first, second and third place winners. Your competition can be on almost anything. Think of a way to offer a competition, create a small entry fee and you are set!

8. Create a member only area. You can create a members only site about anything from Fan Clubs, Online Newsletters, Courses and Training, Stock Trading Tips, Dating Sites, Personal Advice, Horoscopes, Family Trees, and so on. Again, your only limitation is your imagination. If you have a site already up and running, offer something in your paid member’s area that they cannot easily get for free.

9. Begin a paid advice service. Free information is great and will draw readers to your site. Once there, help the reader out with some basic information. Save the real “meat” for those that are willing to pay a small fee.

10. Sell your site. Why drag on a project for years when you can get in, get out and turn a quick (albeit smaller) profit? Create your site, get it listed in the search engines, make sure you get a few dollars a week in online advertising and sell your site for a few thousand dollars.

A Government Grant is an aid program specially designed for helping those who have financial difficulties and cannot achieve, due to lack of finance, certain goals the government is interested to promote.

Government Grants Explained

Though there are many different government grants for a lot of purposes, as noted in the first paragraph, most of them concentrate on three goals: Helping people start their new business, helping people pay their way through school or college and helping people buy their first home.

Grants are provided by government agencies all over the country and at all levels of administration: There are Federal Government Grants, State Government Grants and Local Government Grants.

Each agency has its own requirements and though qualification is not as difficult as it may seem, the truth is that you need to be informed in order to successfully apply for a Government Grant without fear of being declined.

Grant’s amounts range from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. As the loan amount get’s higher, it becomes increasingly difficult to qualify for. So you ought to know the requirements beforehand and apply as early as possible. It is known that most Government Grants are granted on a first arrived, first served basis, so timing is a very important issue not to be bypassed.

The smartest thing to do is, by analyzing grant’s requirements, to select the Government Grant you are best qualified for and concentrate on applying to it. There are certain grants restricted to citizens of certain states or towns. Others are restricted for those working on certain fields or for those coming from certain economic conditions.

Government Grants Purposes

The main help grants provide is focus on aiding those who want to buy a new house or rent. Real State agents are fully aware of these programs and should be questioned about them when their services are hired. Most applicants qualify for this kind of aid though they usually ignore it, so don’t hesitate to ask your realtor about the government grant programs and ask them for help. Your real estate agent is more than capable of helping you fill all the paperwork so you can effectively apply for Government Grant.

Another use of Government Grants is paying for college. College fees have increased over the years and it has become increasingly difficult to afford college education, especially for those whose income has remained untouched. There are mainly federal grants and loans for those starting college and some, but not many, specific estate grants available too.

When it comes to starting a new business, government grants are of a great help for those who are working in a field the government is especially interested to develop. Government grants are mainly destined in this case to acquire machinery, supplies, pay for salaries for a certain period of time, etc. Generally speaking business government grants provide the finance needed for a business to get started and become independent. There are also grants for helping undertake international business transactions.

If you have been itching to start your own small business but not sure where to start, business ideas and opportunities are everywhere to be found. Identifying good opportunities is often as easy as identifying problems many people share and finding a solution for those problems.

Anyone can own and run a successful small business; you do not need to have an MBA to turn your business opportunity into profits. You just need capital for investment, a good solid team and reliable small business software. To run your business smoothly and efficiently you need effective business software as they help automate and simplify many office and management tasks related to accounting, management, scheduling and database etc.

To setup your small business finance, various types of loans are available. If you want to start a business and require relatively low capital, then a small business loan is the best option for you.

Two forms of small business loans are available:

* Secured small business loan: This kind of loan is ideal if you have home or property to place as collateral. Interest rates are comparatively low.

* Unsecured small business loan: If you do not have a house of your own or you do not want to put your property up as collateral, you can opt for this kind of loan. Rates are generally higher.

Approval of your loan depends upon several factors, such as the purpose of the loan, your credit history, your business plan and the collateral placed. Normally, you can get a loan ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. The repayment period for these loans range from 5 to 20 years. The lender takes all these variables into consideration when calculating the interest rate, loan amount, and the amount for monthly installments.

With a business loan you can raise money for business opportunities with flexible repayment options. You can even use this money as an effective tool for debt consolidation at tax-free interest rate.

The loan procedure involves a lot of paper work that tends to get quite chaotic and confusing. An alternative to this is to apply for a loan online with reputable firms. You will only need to fill out an online application form and the lender will get back to you with the best possible deal for your case.

John Goodchild and Clive Callow have edited a short book, Brands Visions and Values, which can be a useful reference for a small business marketer. This is a fairly quick read, compiled from several different UK sources. If you are a Chief Marketer that needs to convince a “dollars and sense” type in your organization of the value of building a brand then this is a decent resource.

If you still think brand is all about logos and not about the employees in your company, then please read chapter two.

Note: this is not a book you’ll constantly pull down from your shelf in order to extract “how to market” solutions from. But, it can serve to help validate and reinforce the “why you market”, especially when you have to justify to a “dollars and sense type” why you are spending company resources on improving your small business brand.

Chapter Two, “The Role of Brands in Business”, is an article by Jonathan Knowles. Although directed at larger companies, this has solid information applicable to small business. On p. 23 Knowles offers this great quote: “The advent of the information economy means that an increasing proportion of the value of companies resides in the heads of their employees.” As a small business marketer, you know the importance of employees, but it is sometimes refreshing to have this underscored again in print.

Knowles also point out the difference between service and product brands, and how the service brands are not as well understood. Those of you who have read Harry Beckwith will relate. Pages 61-65 have some pertinent insights into service branding, and an instructive case study of a Credit Suisse campaign to change their service brand’s image. There are some significant lessons in these pages for a service marketer, especially if you deal in financial services.

The overview Knowles presents of how Virgin Atlantic views its staff as “an integral part of the offer” is also instructive; moreover, this echoes Frederick Reichheld’s writings on loyalty and the important role of employees in the company.

Pages 85 through 87, the conclusion of Knowles’ contribution, offer a quick overview of how the people who run business have shifted their attention over the past forty years. Especially for those of you newer in business, these pages are valuable to read to understand how business has shifted because no doubt it will continue to change throughout your marketing career.

Chapter Three, “Accounting for Intangible Assets” may be a worthwhile reference for your accounting firm. Mostly the chapter is a well-written overview of the last twenty years of the various debates in the UK on the subject.

We recommend you acquaint yourself with Brands Visions and Values, but spend most of your marketing “self-improvement” time on chapter two.

To begin with, we need to get something straight. Word-of-mouth advertising is a misnomer. The dictionary definition of “advertising,” according to Webster is:

“The action of drawing something to the public’s attention with a paid announcement, often through a printed notice or a broadcast.”

Therefore, WOM is NOT advertising. It is neither bought nor controllable, to any large extent. Spreading WOM advertising is more akin to allowing the wind to control a kite. Sometimes it goes up and often times eventually, comes down. When a consumer uses your product or service, your job is done. Then the person has a variety of choices. They can (a) tell a friend or relative how great the experience was, (b) tell them how awful it was, or (c) tell nobody at all.

It depends on the result. More often than not, if your business has simply met their expectations, they will likely do nothing. If you produced a superior product or service, they may tell a few people. Ah, but if you have done a lousy job, watch out. They’ll tell the world about the awful item or event. Therefore, WOM has a 66% chance of not working in your favor. It works exactly like the news. A terrible situation with a tragic outcome has a far better chance of making the news than a warm and fuzzy, feel-good piece. It’s human nature. People are fascinated by horrible traffic accidents and will gawk for minutes or hours. They still discuss Princess Di, John F. Kennedy, Jr, and John Lennon’s death, even decades later. But, do they celebrate the living with the same enthusiasm?

Knowing all that, why would any business continue to ignore traditional advertising channels and rely solely on WOM? At least with the media, they can structure their own program, target their market, and track the results. It’s not just a matter of money. Sure, advertising costs money, but it’s an investment in the company. WOM is free promotion, but is it positive? From what I’ve just written, you tell me.

There are numerous up-to-date marketing strategies that companies resort to in order to promote their image, from lavish multilingual websites to expensive TV campaigns. However, other means of selling your image are now en vogue. An elegant business card can have a great impact on your customers and so can a coloured printed brochure offering full details about the services you provide. This is why many companies resort to business card printing and to brochure printing as their major advertising strategies. Particularly favoured are colour business card printing services which cover a wide range of styles and designs.

When meeting a customer, offering them a convenient and elegant reminder of how to contact you is one of the most important ways of making an impact. Therefore, make sure you don’t forget about the colour business card printing and brochure printing as they can be very effective means of getting clients interested in what you have to offer. Whatever you may be selling, it is important that your advertising material has a strong visual impact. Colour business card printing and brochure printing may involve more effort from the companies that provide business card printing, but the results are worthwhile and they love to work for you.

Your business card should not only include your contact details, but also have a striking appearance, so that it gets remarked by the potential customers’ minds. If you feel you cannot be creative enough as far as design is concerned, you can resort to firms providing services of colour business card printing. Companies offering business card printing services will take your suggestions into account and will come up with their own ideas to help you make up your mind. You will have numerous choices of colour business card printing, and you will be able to select the one you consider the most effective in selling your image.

When dealing with such cards, companies specialized in providing services of colour business card printing use the most up-to-date technologies to ensure the high quality of their products. An effective business card can include not only the company logo and the contact details of its representatives, but also colour photographs, properly fit into space to catch the eye. Business card printing companies employ the best design specialists and they can give you full guidelines when discussing your colour business card printing options. They can advise you not only on style and design, but also on details you may not have considered, such as the size of your card, the types of pasteboard you can choose from or the types of coating that can be applied on the surface.

Another important marketing strategy is to provide your potential customers with a brochure giving them details about the services you offer in an attractive layout. If you have difficulties in thinking up your brochure, companies providing brochure printing services can also be of help. Their specialists in brochure printing can advise on how you should present your products or services to your potential customers in an efficient way. A specialist in advertising will tell you that, instead of coming up with the typical dull brochure people will lay aside after giving it a brief browsing, you should go for a more daring design and format. In brochure printing, like in any form of advertising meant to draw attention, it's the atypical that catches the eye and makes a long-lasting impression, so keep that in mind when thinking up your advertising material. However, the brochure printing services will take into consideration your company’s personality and your opinion on how you want others to see you. If you prefer something more serious and less catchy, they can do that as well.

Apart from layout and design, it is essential to have a strong content included in your brochure, both in terms of photographs and in terms of written material. Probably the most important aspect when dealing with brochure printing is to make sure you provide as much information as possible about what you sell. Potential customers will be more easily tempted by your products or services if your business has a friendly interface. How to organize essential information is another point on which brochure printing specialists can advise you.

As your company expands and offers a wider range of products and services, you must keep all your marketing tools up-to-date. Dealing with all your advertising requirements on your own, including colour business card printing and brochure printing, is very difficult. This is why expert services offer to do the job for you and renew the way your business card and your brochure look like. They will not only offer your clients information, but they will show the customers your preoccupation for them every time you hand in a colour business card. Their professionalism will become yours and you can be sure your clients will notice this immediately.

When people think of businesses often they do not think of Industrial Mechanical type businesses and yet much of the wealth generated in this country comes from such non-thought of businesses. Most folks do not realize that making things that run our civilization is big business and there is lots of it. Consider if you will the current economic condition in the United States. Things are really hopping and there is a lot of money to be made for those who can get things made on time and right the first time.

Consider all the needs for new refineries, pipelines, ethanol plants, wind generators, construction materials, bridges, aircraft and up-grading all the tooling to make Harley Davidsons, GM Automobiles and Peterbuild Trucks? What about all those tractors, locomotives, tanker cars and military vehicles too? Some one has to design, make and manufacture all these things.

There are structural pieces, ball-bearings, fittings, valves and hundreds of thousands of machined moving parts, which must be built at specific tolerances otherwise well they just will not work. This is something that America is well suited for, getting the job and the parts right the first time. Find a need and fill an important customers desires and you win. There are a million niches to fill too from Space Shuttle parts to the next cruise ship.

In the United States we have made many mistakes with our industrial mining companies and without the flow of raw materials to market we cost our manufacturing industries billions per year in additional costs to bring these materials to the facilities from far away lands. It is a darn shame considering this huge nation from sea to shining sea, with enough resources to supply the world with raw materials. Oh what have we done?

Well glad you asked because we have systematically condemned mining operations of nearly every possible material in this country thru abuses and over regulations. Our iron ore is some of the purest in the world and yet we import much of our raw steal with impurities in it from other nations. Same with copper, platinum, aluminum, titanium and so on; in fact in reading the long list you begin to cry at what we have done and the severe disadvantage we have put our industrial capacity and corporations at.

It is too bad we cannot go back and fix the problem and perhaps we can now with our superior know-how and achievements in environmental controls and worker safety devices and robotics to do much of the mining. And to that point maybe we will, but until we do our manufacturers are competing while having their supply lines tied behind their backs, so please if you are anyone of any real power to change things, well lets just say now might be a very good time!

Is it possible for an individual with strong moral values to make ethically questionable decisions in a business setting? What affects a person's inclination to make either ethical or unethical decisions in a business organization? Although the answers to that question are not entirely clear, there appear to be three general sets of factors that influence the standards of behavior in an organization; individual factors, social factors and opportunity.

Several individual factors influence the level of ethical behavior in an organization. An individual's knowledge level regarding an issue can help to determine ethical behavior. A decision maker with a greater amount of knowledge regarding an object or situation may take steps to avoid ethical problems, whereas a less-informed person may unknowingly take action that leads to an ethical conflict. One's moral values and central, value-related attitudes clearly influence his or her business behavior. Most people join organizations to accomplish personal goals. The types of personal goals an individual aspires to and the manner in which these goals are pursued have significant impact on that individual's behavior in an organization.

A person's behavior in the workplace is, to some degree, determined by cultural norms, and these social factors vary from one culture to another. For example, in some countries it is acceptable and ethical for customs agents to receive gratuities for performing ordinary, legal tasks that are a part of jobs, whereas in other countries these practices would be viewed as unethical and perhaps illegal. The actions and decisions of coworkers is another social factor believed to shape a person's sense of business ethics. For example, if your coworkers make long-distance telephone calls on company time and at company expense, you might view that behavior as acceptable and ethical because everyone does it. Significant others are persons to whom someone is emotionally attached-spouses, friends, and relatives, for instance. Their moral values and attitudes can also affect an employee's perception of what is ethical and unethical in the workplace.

Opportunity refers to the amount of freedom an organization gives an employee to behave ethically if he or she makes that choice. In some organizations, certain company policies and procedures reduce the opportunity to be unethical. For example, at some fast-food restaurants, one person takes your order and receives your payment and another person fills the order. This procedure reduces the opportunity to be unethical because the person handling the money is not dispensing the product, and the person giving out the product is not handling the money. The existence of an ethical code and the importance management places on this code are other determinants of opportunity. The degree of enforcement of company policies, procedures, and ethical codes is a major force affecting opportunity. When violations are dealt with consistently and firmly, the opportunity to be unethical is reduced.

One of the biggest business myths is that business ethics is an oxymoron. There are some that would say that business is a big competition, a competition where business people are competing for a limited prize – success, money, power – and thrive achieve it by any means possible, including advancing your own personal interest at the expense of others.

Do you agree? Is there no room for etiquette in business? Is corporate social responsibility an oxymoron?

Take the following two anecdotal examples:

* Kenneth Lay’s and Jeffrey Skilling’s personal greed brought an end to Enron and killed thousands of jobs.
* The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is endowed with over $29 million, mainly consisting of Gates’ own money. The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, has a social conscience. Do you think he made it to where he is by conniving and cheating people. I think not.

Do you still think business ethics is an oxymoron?

Who would you rather have as a business mentor, Bill Gates or Kenneth Lay? Bill Gates has a track record of corporate social responsibility and Kenneth Lay is quite the opposite.

In my view, a socially responsible business, all other things being equal, will be more successful than one that is not. A good reputation is important in business and a business with a good reputation will have loyal customers. The opposite is true of businesses that perform bad business etiquette.