The business of not being too greedy as an entrepreneur

You’re not a greedy person - you were never brought up that way. But, something has gone wrong, hasn’t it?

Your personal life remains a completely greed-free place as far as you’re concerned, but it’s clear that you’ve overstepped the mark in business. You’ve wanted too much, too soon and you’ve done everything you can to get it. And you know what? It hasn’t worked.

Don’t worry - you’re not alone. Becoming greedy in business isn’t a sign of a bad person (well, sometimes it is); it’s more often than not a sign that you’re simply passionate about your company and want it to succeed.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to misplace that passion, and that usually leads to greed.

The trick lies in identifying the onset of business greediness within yourself and cutting it off at the source before it can do any permanent damage to your career or the organisation.

Here’s what I believe to be the most common examples of greediness in business.

Warning: this might not be an easy read…

The business is suddenly all about you

Being at the helm of a business is stressful but immensely satisfying when things are going well. As the company grows, you’ll feel an immense sense of pride that you were the one who started it.

That’s all well and good, but if the business stops being about the business and instead becomes more of a vehicle by which you’re promoting your personal brand, you might have become too greedy.

This can result in lavish end of year bonuses, unrealistically high wages and so much coverage in marketing output and PR that no one else gets a look in (even the products).

As much as this company is yours, it’s a team effort and the ultimate star is always the product. Always keep that in mind if you feel yourself beginning to get a bit too big for your boots!

You’ve become a bystander

At the other end of the greediness scale, we have the people who either inadvertently or purposefully become bystanders within the organisation.

It’s important that you employ the best people possible to carry out the constituent elements your business relies on to turn a profit and grow, but that doesn’t mean you can kick back in your business hammock and watch as the figures sail upwards.

Selfish people can be found throughout any business and within any department. They’re the employees (management or otherwise) who idle through the day and watch as their colleagues work their backsides off. The result for them is a much less stressful or productive working week yet just as big a pay packet.

Have you become lazy to the point of greed? When did you start watching rather than doing?

You’re taking shortcuts

Taking shortcuts in business is sometimes a necessary evil, and when done properly and without harming either your business model, product or the customer experience, it’s often the best way to overcome short term challenges.

Sometimes, however, you can go too far and make shortcuts for no other reason than because they’ll result in a quick return, albeit to the detriment of something else.

For instance, you may have found ways to make a higher profit by hampering the performance or quality of a product. If that’s the case, how sustainable is that tactic? It might be raising profits for you immediately, but what’s the impact on customer satisfaction? Is it really worth it?

You’re wrecking the future

This is an easy greed trap to fall into and a classic example of “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”.

Let’s say you’ve got a product that you know can be more profitable, but only if you add something to it which, ultimately, can only be supported for another twelve months. So, you go ahead and rob that element from the future; you take something that isn’t ready yet and with full knowledge that in doing so you’ll be creating huge problems further down the line, implement it.

Lo and behold, the product heads out of the door and sells gangbusters. Then, twelve months later, your customer support team is met with an almighty backlash from buyers who have run into the very problem you predicted. And you can’t deal with it.

Chaos ensues.

Don’t put your business in this position, no matter how tempting it might be to do so!

You’re overriding sensible decisions

As the owner of the business, the buck stops with you and you ultimately have control of the big decisions.

This is part-and-parcel of leading a business, but it doesn’t give you carte blanche to override every decision that you simply don’t agree with.

Ok, ok - it does, but if you find yourself continually doing that, you may be entering decision greed, where only your beliefs matter. And that’s a very dangerous place to be, because your staff will undoubtedly have some amazing ideas that need to be heard - better ideas than you’ve had yourself.

If you know, deep down, a decision that needs to be made and which overwhelmingly gets voted in the opposite direction to your opinion is the right one - let it happen. Remember - this is a team effort, and by overriding decisions out of pure single-mindedness, you’re not only robbing the team of their own development and input on the business, you’re becoming far too greedy.

Wrapping up

It’d be easy to read this post as an attack on any entrepreneur who is doing everything they can to make their business grow, but that really isn’t the case.

I’ve seen greed in people, and I’ve even felt the initial green shoots of it within myself. Thankfully, I’ve chopped them back before anything can go wrong, but even if you’ve let them grow, there’s still a way to turn back the clock and become the ethical, brilliant business person you are.