“I might not always say what you want to hear, but I’ll always tell you the real deal” – Barry Labman (Brandon’s Dad)
TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS
Some businesses cut corners in order to grow fast. We don’t believe a company can be great if it does this. We have worked extremely hard the past four years taking the long way. It’s not easy to do when running a small business.
Every day there are dozens of times when opportunities to cut corners are dangled in front of you, and doing so is tempting. Sometimes it seems that there is no other choice but to give in and do so.
The bottom line is that it will catch up to you and hurt the business in the long run.
We Call Your Bluff
Lying to people about your business is a waste of time. Unless you have multiple World Series of Poker championship bracelets, you’re not a good bluffer anyways. Lying about the smallest things like doubling your number of clients will only lead to taking credibility away from the things that you really do great.
It’s easy to say that they will never find out, but why risk it. Some of our best clients have come from us being overly honest about our operations. Being honest and trustworthy will always surprise you.
Just Get the Job Done and Do it Well
There’s nothing wrong with not having 100 people on staff; they don’t need 100 people. They need the least amount of people to get the job done; nothing more, nothing less.
When we speak to people, we don’t bring up all the great things we may or may not have done in the past. Really, who cares? It’s over.
The only thing that matters is what we are doing now and how we are helping the person in front of us at that moment. We are either ready or we are not, simple as that.
Return the Wallet and No Cell Phone Contracts
As much as we don’t look at the past to judge our performance, we also do the same with the future.
We don’t believe in long-term contracts, set-up fees, or early termination fees. If the customer wants to leave, we screwed up somehow or they found something better. Why should they owe money if they didn’t get what they were expecting or were unsatisfied?
Our approach: suck it up and “return their wallet.” If you need clarification or reason why you should always do this, simply take a clean sheet of paper and write down what you think of your cell phone company and what you think they should change.
A few Concepts & Ideas we live by
This is the third installment in a series of posts called: How We Started a Company in College with $400, No Experience, & No Clue What We Were Doing.
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