By Alyanna Therese Tagamolila

Being an entrepreneur is a dream that select individuals have to be able to live and earn in their own terms doing the thing that they enjoy – it’s a role that we assume in our community and in society that not a lot of people are able to! However, being an entrepreneur is both a benefit we enjoy and a duty to be conscious of our contribution to society.

Ethical Entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur means you help circulate your community’s economic state as you provide services or products, stimulate cashflow and provide employment opportunities! This means that in general, your local community benefit from your business’ existence and you change the lives of those around you. However, even if your community benefits from your business, you should also make sure to always apply ethical practices as you move forward with your operations and expansion; never step over other people or other matters just to be able to earn more.

Do not compromise employee welfare for profit

Just as your business cannot come alive without your dreams and your vision, it also cannot continue to operate without the labor and hard work of your employees. With this, always make sure to treat your employees as the assets that they are. Make sure that they are given proper benefits as is mandated by DOLE and are given an understandable and livable wage depending on your business’ capacity. Never cut costs by endangering your employees’ welfare – instead, train them to be more efficient and even be open to accepting feedback on how you can cut costs through other expenditures, you’ll be surprised at the ideas your team may have to offer. Be a kind employer to them and it’ll surely be a valuable be investment that will benefit you tenfold!

Do not cheat your customers of your promised quality of goods/services

Your product/service’s quality will always speak for itself! Whatever the state of your marketing or advertising is, having quality products and services is the surest and safest way to gain brand loyalty and have a steady stream of customers – which is why this is the LAST thing you want to compromise. Customers will always be wary about getting their money’s worth since a lot of other businesses most often than not offer products and services that are similar to yours. To make sure that your customers are taken care of, always produce the quality you promised and be open to community feedback from your customers – research and development is key, there will always be a way to be cost-efficient and still produce quality outputs!

Know your Purpose and Make Ethical Decisions

Outside of your employees and your products and services, there will always be a wide scope of decisions for an entrepreneur to make. With this, RBM Consultancy would just like to gently remind all business owners and to call to action the one trait we all have: our humanity. Practice empathy and humanity in every decision you make. The ethical road might be just a little bit longer and just a little bit harder, but as long as you know your purpose for bringing your business to life, a harder and longer road should not deter you. Let us always strive to help the people and the community who has also helped us. In all things, let us be human.

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