What is the value of a businessman’s reputation?

The reputation of a business leader or private entrepreneur is an intangible, but very valuable, benefit. After all, the better the reputation, the more opportunities for making money are opened before the entrepreneur. In this article, I propose to consider ways to build a good reputation for a businessman and his company.

What is a reputation?

Reputation is a fixed certain opinion about a person, a group of people, a company. The value of reputation is the higher, the easier it is to get information about the person or organization that interests us. The Internet, customer reviews on independent resources, social networks - all this makes any business almost transparent (except for information constituting a trade secret). Before buying a particular product, people read reviews on which they base their attitude towards it. Before entering into partnership and other commercial relations with an entrepreneur, they study their activities, communicate with contractors, customers, and former employees. Unseemly acts committed by a businessman earlier will certainly be made public, it is only a matter of time. And, the less people have confidence in official company advertising, the more value their reputation gains, affecting profits and business growth.

Ways to build a good reputation as an entrepreneur or company:

1. Compliance with laws.

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2. Compliance with business ethics.

Business ethics means punctuality, fulfillment of obligations, honesty and decency.

I am sure that you are familiar with businessmen who do not comply with the agreements, are late or are not at the scheduled meetings, do not pay for the receivables to suppliers and bank loans for months. But at the same time, they buy new cars for themselves and relax in foreign resorts, posting the corresponding photos on the pages of social networks. It becomes clear that their own reputation does not bother them at all.

3. High social responsibility.

Social responsibility should extend both to "internal customers" - shareholders and company personnel, and to external - suppliers, partners, customers. Everyone makes mistakes, but the way they are corrected affects the company's reputation.

4. Correspondence of price and quality of goods and services.

Businessmen are not always able to maintain the high quality of the goods they sell. Many are focused on the economy class, selling consumer goods. The main thing is honesty towards customers in advertising such products and setting prices for them.

5. Personal reputation of a businessman and company employees.

Entering into contact with consumers of goods or partners, each employee personifies and represents his organization. From what the identity of this employee is and how exactly he does it, one gets an idea of ​​the reputation of the entire company.

6. The effectiveness of business management.

The indicators of business growth influence the formation of a good reputation: the use of innovative technologies, increased profitability, a good credit history and support for banks, company scaling, etc.

Unfortunately, most businessmen prefer to create a positive image of the company than to build a good reputation, or they don’t see the difference between these concepts. An image is a kind of artificial image created in order to increase the recognition of a company, attractiveness, and confidence. And reputation is a businessman’s value system, the sequence of his actions, on the basis of which the image is formed.

A good reputation is a valuable intangible asset, the protection and enhancement of which is the task of any entrepreneur who wants to work long and actively in the market. Only when businessmen stop replacing their image with image can they truly enjoy the trust and support of the consumers for whom they work.

Elena Trigub.

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