Family, Friendship Ties and Business
A lot of people around the world gas one business or the other they are in control of as a means of livelihood. It could either be on employment or self-employed. Many of us kick-started these enterprises at a young age while others started off at a later age.
In business, we occasionally give out discounts to clients, but sometimes when it comes to family and dear friends, the discounts tends to grow into a gift which sometimes is either being given out at the cost price of the goods or not to be paid for at all. I had such experience recently with two friends. I’m not mentioning family cause my family takes my business quite seriously and makes sure to pay for it.
Well, back to my friends. That was early September last year, I had gone to the market to purchase vintage fabrics for sale the previous day, and then my two friends came around the following day. They’ve actually been my clients too. The moment they set eyes on the fabrics, they immediately started making selections of the ones they liked. After the entire selection process, we all sat down and calculated the cost of the fabrics as well as sewing them. Their bills combined was almost a 100,000 in Naira.
We reached an agreement and it was decided that I can start sewing them the minute they send in their 60% deposits respectively to which I agreed. I mean, I would have agreed either way cause they are my dear friends. I got their measurements and they left. Hours turned into days, days into weeks, weeks into months and 5months later, I’ve not yet seen the deposit neither have I started sewing and guess what, I still kept their fabrics for them instead of selling them off cause I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.
Now, the adverse effects of my decision so far has almost made me to regret my goodwill towards my friends. The country’s currency has depreciated more than 60% percent it’s value as at the time I purchased those fabrics. And the sad thing is that my friends won’t be adding up those extra costs to the initially calculated bills. I’m literally losing and still very much in a bad debt.
I finally decided to inform them that I’ll be calling off the deal and selling off the fabrics only for one of them to sit me down and started explaining the situations she’s been facing. They are so bad I qualified them as tribulations. But again, it only succeed in dampening my spirit from taking an action on the decision I made earlier on. Now, I gave them both a deadline of an extra month each. All these I’ve done in a bid to maintain a good relationship with them but it has obviously been at the cost of my business.
Giving our special discounts to family and friends is a very good thing to do but doing it at the detriment of your livelihood is not a very good decision. You could go bankrupt doing it and if peradventure these family members or friends aren’t financially stable enough to help you get back on your feet, it becomes a very big problem and setback for you.
Love should have it’s place. Businesses should have it’s boundaries. Respect them and you’ll hardly have an issue maintaining them.