Find Business Grants
Graphic image of letter A

Seven Deadly Business Sins - 1. Lust

Lust - number 1 in a series of articles outlining seven common business mistakes to avoid. Kindly supplied by Jane Buswell of Business Fulcrum

If youve read any of my other articles, Im sure the title of this one might have cheered you a little, you know brought a gleam to the eye, a little faster beating of the heart - just in case this was going to be slightly more risqué and slightly less... businesslike.

So apologies now if theres been a general build in the ferment of anticipatory lather. Heigh ho, it was ever thus, Lust is divisive, it is certainly not going to please all the people all of the time. In fact you can guarantee its going to make an awful lot of people fed up in the extreme.

In a business sense this might well apply to how you look after your customers. The lust for more work from your biggest customer may become all consuming; indeed you may not be able to think of any other customer. You stop communicating with others who have been loyal to you through thick and thin and you start to deal with their work in an offhand and slapdash way. In effect lust blinds you beyond all reason and you may well end up with all your eggs in one basket. And that is not where we want to be as businesses is it? No it is not...

Apparently in many lists of the 7 Deadly Sins "Lust" is replaced by "Luxury". Can Luxury really be regarded as so dangerous to business? Probably not if you are selling a "luxury product" at "luxury prices" but I do think it can be harmful if it relates to attitude.

One mans normal view of life is another mans luxury and sometimes new bright eyed entrepreneurs have a peculiarly optimistic view about what their businesses will sustain because in their view it is "normal". You will have met them. They are the ones in plush offices who drive round in large petrol hungry cars and spend their time over long lunches "doing business" (or they used to...)

Most of us recognise that this sort of lifestyle belongs firmly with the excesses of the 80s and indeed work so hard these days that Lust becomes a long forgotten word between "Killing yourself" and "Missing deadlines"

Just as well perhaps...

Jane Buswell
janebuswell@businessfulcrum.co.uk
07966155518
Follow Jane on her blog: http://businessfulcrum.blogspot.com

Jane Buswell
Business Fulrum

Guest Articles Welcomed

As we cannot be experts in every relevant subject, we would love to receive 'guest' articles that may be of interest to anyone running their own business or thinking of doing so. ADD YOUR ARTICLE