5 Principles to Live By Online

Do you live by your principles? If someone were to ask you what principles you run your business by, would you have a concise and committed answer for them?

prin⋅ci⋅ples
a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct: a person of principle.

Over the years, I have found that many who want to start an online business for additional income or to replace their current income, have no idea or basis of what principles should guide them.

Your principles need to be based in respect, honesty, integrity, ethics and character. Unfortunately, each and every day that I sit behind these keyboard, I run into onliners who feel the need for these traits is not necessary or something they can disregard. Just to make a buck…

You shouldn’t run an online business if:

1. RESPECT: …you are not going to respect the time and efforts of others on your behalf. Whether that be suppliers, partners or customers. Not respecting their time or hard earned dollars is a critical error in judgment.
2. HONESTY: …you are not going to be honest about how you run your business and any mistakes you will make. And you will make mistakes — we all do. You need to be prepared to right your mistakes promptly and without excuses regardless of the cost to you to do so.
3. INTEGRITY: …you need to stick to your moral principles regardless of what the monetary value may be. I’ve had many an opportunity to rip-off customers by taking advantage of what they don’t know to make more money. I can’t do that because my moral fiber will not allow me to because that is the type of person I am.
4. ETHICS:…you need to be prepared to do what’s right regardless of the pressure, hype or cajoling by others to do otherwise. Sometimes standing against the tide is the toughest thing to do — but it’s the right thing to do!
5. CHARACTER:…you are not concerned about your character. Character is born of the four traits above. This is how you build your reputation as an honest and forthright business owner. Reputation cannot be bought, it must be earned and there is no way around this fact.

Without the above, you are no different than all the other fly-by-nights or snake oil Web sites out there purely to take advantage of or to get into the pocketbooks of their customers.

Doing what’s right because that’s how you roll is what allows you to look yourself in the mirror at the end of each day and know you did the very best you could — by those who know you, those you work with and most importantly yourself.

“Important principles may and must be inflexible.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

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