ABCO Payroll Services®

By Roger Reynolds

When I was growing up I was always looking for the "Secret" of business success. Nobody in my family had ever owned their own business, so I thought if I went to business school I would be sure to learn the "Secret". Well, after receiving my 4 year degree I had learned a lot -- the difference between debits and credits, how to calculate return on investment and many other tools of business -- but not the "Secret" of business success.

A year or so after graduation and after the start of my professional career I started thinking, you must only learn the "Secret" when you get your MBA. That made sense to me; I mean why would you need to get an MBA if you learned the "Secret" when you went through the undergraduate program?

So, I started spending my evenings and weekends pursuing an MBA and the "Secret" of business success.

During one of those evening classes the professor started telling us the "Secret". I didn't recognize it as the "Secret" at the time, but since it was not in the textbook or on the syllabus my only conclusion was it must be a "Secret".

The professor posed a question to the class. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF BUSINESS IN A SOCIETY? Up until that discussion, the answer to the question seemed obvious to me -- MAKE MONEY! At the end of that class I came away with a different perspective, but it took a while before realizing the difference a new perspective would make on my future decisions.

The first response from the class was consistent with mine -- TO MAKE A PROFIT! To that the professor asked, "What about in a communistic society or what about a business run by the government, such as the post office?"

After much discussion there was agreement among the class that profit wasn't the purpose of business, it was the MOTIVE.

The purpose of business is "To provide goods and services".

When I left that class I thought it was an interesting discussion, but didn't realize how understanding this difference would influence my future business decisions. In business we are constantly making small decisions about the products we sell or the services we provide.

At the time I was working in the retail footwear industry in the buying department. We were always faced with the choice of shoes that would produce a higher gross profit or a shoe with better quality and a lower gross profit. If you believe the purpose of business is to make a profit, many times you are going to make the decision that gives you a higher gross profit. If you believe the purpose is to provide goods or services, most of the time you are going to go for quality. Each decision is insignificant. One decision is not going to make or break your season. However, there is a cumulative effect of the decisions that we make.

Recently when I was out visiting with a prospective client I stopped into a grocery store to use the restroom before starting the return trip to the office. This store happened to be part of a chain that has had financial problems in the last few years. To get to the restroom it was necessary to take the door next to the meat department back into the stock area of the store. On my drive back to the office I started thinking what must have happened when the store designer brought plans into the executive's office with the restrooms in the front of the store like Publix. I could imagine the executives telling the designer that restrooms don't produce revenue, so put them in the stock area.

I am not saying having the customer's restrooms in the stock area is why the company has had financial problems. I see the restrooms decision as an indication of their priorities. There are thousands of decisions when the buyers must choose between a higher profit margin or higher quality.

Now of course knowing the purpose of a business in society is not the only "Secret" to running a successful business. It was only after working many years in the business world that it dawned on me that what I'd been taught by my family when I was growing up was as important as the "Secret" I learned in graduate school. My parents and grandparents were greatly influenced by the great depression of the 30's. They taught me to value a job (client) and make sure you give the person you're working for their money's worth. They taught me to treat everyone with respect and to ask myself what I would do if I were in the other person's shoes. They taught me that a man was only as good as his word.

At ABCO Payroll Services we just call this following the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

Oh yeah, there was one other thing I learned from my family - Every time the phone rang they answered it... There was no voice mail; there was no answering machine.... They just answered the phone when it rang. We find that our clients seem to like that too.