What’s the most condescending facet of adulthood? Rights and responsibilities. Adulthood comes with tonnes of rights and responsibilities that we owe to people and the community around us. These rights and responsibilities increase ten folds when you have taken an entrepreneurship venture upon your shoulders. Because you are affecting a lot more people directly and indirectly, you become partly answerable for the treatment and actions of your employees, customers, colleagues, and the wider community.
It can get intimidating at times, but certainly nothing great comes easy. Whether you are a mammoth business setup in Dubai or a young local startup, you should learn to take responsibility for your impacts upon the society and the rights that befall you as a business owner.
Rights of Businesses
As a business owner, you have the right to make decisions about each and every aspect of your business independently. When running a business, you have the liberty to adopt any managerial strategy or means of production as long as you stay within the premises of state and federal law. There is no restriction induced by the state or law on the amount of capital or efforts you can invest in the business. Additionally, you have the right to refuse to provide services to a certain party or customer under various circumstances.
Hence, the rights of a business can sufficiently be summarized as follows:
- Decision making
- Make changes in business strategies
- Adopt any business strategy you like
- No limit on capital investment
- Right to refuse to provide services
Responsibilities of Businesses
Your business has a set of responsibilities towards the shareholders/co-founders, customers, employees, government, the society, and the environment. Let’s briefly go through all these responsibilities so that you serve and provide fully to the community around you and become one of the highly valued business in the market.
Shareholders, Owners, Co-founders
These are the people or firms that have invested their money as well as their faith in your business when you were just a draft idea. They deserve their fair share i.e. return on the money they have invested and a say in the finances and running of the business. With improved business performance and profits, shareholders expect appreciation in the value of their shares, and only rightly so! It is one of your primary responsibilities to stay true to your commitment to the shareholders and pay up in time.
Customers
Customers are an asset for any entrepreneurship, second only to the shareholders. You must tend to your customers with the promised product/service at reasonable prices and the top-notch quality.
Dishonesty in the production processes or misleading advertisement only brings you down in the eyes of the customer who wouldn’t bother rendering your services a second time if not dealt with utmost respect and honesty.
Dealing with customer complaints and suggestions through a proper portal also falls under your responsibilities. Your relationship with the customer should be built upon trust, confidentiality, and honest feedbacks. Take it upon yourself to use constructive feedback in improving your products and you will never find the need to lure in customers through any dishonest means.
Employees
Well-qualified, trained, and loyal employees are what make a business competitive in any given niche. Whether they like to believe it or not, businesses rely a great deal on the productivity and endeavors of their employees. In regard to this, businesses are responsible for their employees in the following ways:
- Equal promotion and increment options for all
- Safe and healthy work environment
- Competitive wages
- Medical benefits and insurance
- Compensation for injury at workplace
Government
For the peace and prosperity of the entire society, it is important that businesses comply with legal and safety guidelines laid out by the government. Your business should not be associated with any unlawful or corrupt practices to avoid any inconvenience on your or the government’s behalf. All of your business dealings should be done within legal premises. Avoid all of the following:
- Illegal trade or manufacturing
- Violation of state or federal law
- Unfair business audits and taxation
- Unfair business practices
Society and Environment
As a business, you should add positive value to the society around you. By staying true to your business objective, you should generate employment opportunities for the people, regardless of their cast, gender, and race and encourage social and cultural interactions.
Businesses are not only responsible to give back to the society but also the environment. Your manufacture processes should be eco-friendly and shouldn’t contribute to water, air, or any other sort of pollution.
(Photo credits: Shutterstock)
Brenda Cagara has been writing for websites, articles and blogs for five years now. I have had a fair share of writing on variety of niches but my main focus is business, finance and taxation. Currently, I am working with business consultants in Dubai (Riz & Mona) which offers company formation and business setup services across all states of United Arab Emirates. Our other services are products registration, visa processing, bank account opening, trade license, trade mark, local sponsors and many more.