It’s Business, Not Personal

Joni Walton

I just read an article called “I Hate It’s Business Not Personal.”  This article spoke about how much this saying was their biggest pet peeve.  They believe everything about business is personal.  That may be true, but if you make business decisions based on personal feelings than prepare to fail. 

 

I have repeated this saying hundreds of times during my 18 years owning my own company.  This does not mean I am not “in tune” to my employees, customers and vendor’s feelings; quite the contrary.  However, the one thing I keep furthest from my mind when I am making any business decision is my personal feelings for people involved or the situation itself. 

 

My job is to make decisions in the best interest of my company.  This insures we are obtaining the best opportunities for growth.  This does not mean you are a heartless, horrible, non-feeling person.  It means you put your personal feelings aside and make business decisions based on facts not emotion.  When I am making any business decision, if I allow myself to take into account how much I like the person, who’s feelings might get hurt, or peoples personal struggles going on in their life than I am doing my company, customers and possibly the person/persons involved a dis-service. 

 Over the years I have had to “let go” too many people to mention.  Some people were very accepting and some were extremely upset even violent at times.  With that said; each person who left my company whether on a good note or bad has contacted me a few months or some even a few years later just to thank me and let me know I was right in my decision.  These people explained how appreciative they were because I was candid and honest with them and pointed out why they were not a fit for the position. Some of these people wanted to come back and work for me again and some just wanted to let me know by letting them go it actually made them grow as a person and it pushed them to pursue other avenues which led them to a better suited career path. 

 So I will end my letter with this statement;  It is Business Not Personal.  Whether you like the saying or not if you want to have a successful business you need to live by it.

 Joni