Caveman drawings, a Business How-To

Welcome to another installation of "Caveman Drawings - a Business How-To"

This particular drawing describes early business. Actually, it describes late business and every other business come to think of it...Let me explain.

A person (Owner) starts a business - this could be your local dry cleaner or Ford. A real, live person started each of those businesses. And one of their primary goals for starting this business was to sell a Thing (a product or a service) to another person (Client) in exchange for money (the Transaction).

This is how business has been done forever. And over the past 80 years (or so) the focus has been on the part in the middle - the Transaction.

The Owner wanted to make more money by selling more Things to the Client so they tried to make the Things cheaper and sell them for more. So they might manufacture their Things in China to save on costs. Or maybe they tried to make a winning TV commercial that would sell a lot more Things and gain them more money in the process. Regardless of what they did, the focus was always on the Transaction, or trying to exchange more Things for more money. Sometimes the Owner would hire a Business Consultant to help him figure out how to produce more money from the Transaction. They would tweak pricing, and run new advertising, and squeeze their vendors, and poke and prod every cranny of that Transaction to see where it would yield more money.

And it's worked okay. Lots of Owners have made lots of money and continue to do so. And if that is their definition of success then Hooray - they've been successful. Doesn't matter if anyone else was successful in the process (such as the Client...) but they were, so who cares?

But contrast with the concept of nobility, of honor. Can you find those things in this "Transaction"? I can't.

What happened to the days when Owners built relationship with their Clients and that trust was sealed with a handshake and with a word that would not be broken? Seems to be a relic of the past. Kind of like treacherously tall metal playground slides - but that's the topic for another time...

If you take a look back at the Caveman drawing above you'll see that the Transaction is in the middle of two people - the Owner and the Client. It's not more important than those two, it just resides in the middle. It's the method that these two people transact value with each other.

I've come to the realization that the best, most honorable business Owner knows why they are in business and it has nothing to do with just making money. There is another reason. And I've seen how when an Owner becomes Client-focused instead of Transaction-focused, that nobility, sustainability, reputation, referrals, loyalty, and yes profit, are produced in truckloads.

This is why my business consulting doesn't exalt the Transaction over the people...I believe this:
The Owner needs to get clear on their Why...
The Transaction needs to run smoothly and communicate effectively...
The Client needs to be valued and respected...

I've said this before, we all get one shot at this thing called life. Just one.