Integrity is essential in all our lives whether one is in business or not. If you are in a small business and lack integrity, then it can be practically guaranteed that you won't be in business for long. So what is integrity?
Integrity is honesty. If a person lacks integrity it is unlikely they will have a good credit rating or too many friends. Personal honesty should be part of everyone's character. A character who lacks integrity is not to be trusted.
Any business person who lacks integrity will very soon be found out and labelled. Once this character fault has been identified and the news will spread fast, then credit from other businesses will be refused and your business is likely to become a "cash and carry". That is, no respectable business will give you credit simply because you can't be trusted to pay for the goods or services they provided to you.
The meaning of business integrity is simply that your business can be trusted to pay their bills on time. If not precisely on time, that the bills will get paid. Any business who affords another business the honour of providing them with an account is showing the recipient that they are being trusted. They do so on the grounds of your businesses integrity to do so.
As times get harder and more and more small businesses are finding it harder and harder to pay their accounts on time, to maintain your business integrity is getting harder and needs more work and planning to do so so than ever before. After all, if you have no money coming into your business, then paying your own accounts must get harder. To cover this shortfall, any person today with business integrity must stay on top of their accounting practices to ensure they can cover their monthly payments each month.
If you are a business person who is finding that the cash flow has dried up, then you may need to pay a visit to your business bank and get an overdraft or a business loan to cover the cash short fall. Without covering your cash short fall for your business in a timely manner, you may not be able to meet your monthly commitments on time and get a bad mark against your credit rating. Once this has happened then it is a slippery slope in a downward spiral.
Credit agencies today, all check a number of credit agencies to see if someone or their business, has received a bad credit report. Once they see a bad mark against your name then the interest rate charged on any loan they may give you may be higher than usual if they even give you a loan. They will see that your integrity has become doubtful and this can be crippling to any small business today.
Business integrity though is even more than monetary honesty. It also entails dealing with your customers honestly. If a customer requests a product or service from you then they will naturally expect total honesty in the provision of that product or service.
If you decide to be dishonest and knowingly provide them with a second rate product or service then you will have compromised your business and your personal integrity so you must expect to pay a high price for such dishonest conduct.
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