I’ve always hated this saying. People in business have been using it for years to justify poor business habits and immoral practices.

When we build relationships with clients, suppliers and employees, they are personal relationships. They are based on a guarantee that we will be honest, follow the rules and be respectful. A business relationship is similar to a personal one; it grows, changes or sometimes fails, but a business relationship should always be treated with the same respect as you would treat a personal one.

In 1993 when I first started my business, one of my 1^st jobs was for a company called Tactics Advertising, and they didn’t pay me. Although I sued them and won, collecting the settlement was impossible as they had declared bankruptcy. Afterwards I visited their office and discovered all the same owners, employees, equipment etc.; they had simply bankrupted one company, changed name and started up again under a new name; quite the “Tactic”.

When this type of thing happens in business, or when someone does something equally immoral, of course we take it personally – it simply means we care; if we didn’t care we couldn’t do our jobs well. Infusing your work with your personality makes it better and makes you excel at you career. If you didn’t care then neither would your clients or your suppliers.

How many times have we heard sales people say “it’s all about the relationship”? That’s what business is really about, the personal relationships – the trust clients and suppliers place in us should not be abused under the banner of “It’s just business”.

The truth is it is all personal. If it wasn’t it wouldn’t be anything at all.

– Tony Iacobelli – AIPmedia INC.