Trust is a main ingredient of every strong business relationship. Investors, employees, customers and partners will not take your startup venture seriously if they don’t trust you. Entrepreneurs must work towards establishing credible business relationships, based on trust and confidence. You can become more trustworthy by embracing the following five behaviors of successful entrepreneurs.
”The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” Peter Drucker
Keep your promises. Trustworthy relationships are built slowly but can be rapidly crashed if you don’t keep your promises. Being able to sustain trustworthy relationship, all entrepreneurs must understand the importance of keeping their promises to the others and to themselves, as well. People who can’t meet their own expectations are very likely to fail in meeting the expectations of others. Nobody will trust you if you don’t trust yourself.
Don’t overcommit. Many entrepreneurs make big commitments, which they cannot fulfil. Be honest when you make commitment and be sure that you can deliver what you have promised. Never make promises that you cannot accomplish just to have the attention on yourself. This is not fortunate approach to building healthy business relationship.
Never miss a deadline. The time of others is as important as your own time. Respect their time and the fact that you have promised to deliver specific results in particular time frame. Be punctual. People appreciate punctuality in business and this can be key element for establishing good business relationship, based on trust and honesty.
Make it legal. Trust in business is very sensitive matter because the future of your company depends on every single decision you make. In order to secure your relationship with your partners, customers and investors, you should be prepared to offer formal ways of securing your promises. Customers, investors and employees will feel more secure if they see that you are really ready to do business and you are prepared with all legal aspects of making the deal secure for both sides.
Embrace trustworthy in every aspect of your life. Trustworthy people are reliable not just when it comes to business, but in every other aspect of their lives. Entrepreneurship is very personal venture and many investors tend to trust the entrepreneur personally more than they trust their ideas. Be trustworthy person in order to establish honest relationships in every aspect of your life and you will easily translate it into your startup venture as well.
