Seth Godin, on his blog, recently posted about how the idea of some action being labeled “just business” is a warning sign–that is, when someone does something mean or nasty or unethical and says “C’mon, it’s just business.” I completely agree with Seth (yes, again).
Every day we get to make choices about how we choose to run our businesses. There are those of us who choose to make a little less money now rather than shoot for tobacco or to give away full rights for little or nothing, but in doing so, those people are standing up for their beliefs. They are being ethical.
Yes, my ethics and your ethics may not be 100% the same. Maybe you don’t have a problem with tobacco ads but I do. That’s fine. Those are the fine points of individual ethics–everyone has her/his own code.
But the larger issues should have commonality. I think we can all say that killing someone to improve business is right out. But what about putting someone out of business by, say, undercutting their fees. Is that okay? I say no.
See, business, for small creative businesspeople especially, is life. Besides the intimate connection between one’s art and one’s soul, on a practical level, if a creative’s business fails, s/he could lose her/his home, pretty easily. Is putting a creative and her/his family out on the street, just so one can make a buck/pound/euro/loony, ever acceptable?
What if it happened to you? What if someone undercut your business by lowballing, or badmouthed you to clients, or took credit for work done by you, etc. How would you feel?
Would it be “just business” then?