5 Signs To Spot Unethical Business Approaches

Following on from our very popular blog about ethical investing, I have been asked to expand a little on how we spot those that are only after jumping on our current popularity status.

As we gain more popularity and become more known in social media circles etc we have found a marked interest in other web sites and companies wanting to attach themselves to us.

Such is the cult of ‘celebrity’ I suspect. I’m starting to get a better idea of just how bombarded the lovely Jane Beeny must feel with companies and individuals clamouring to be associated with her.

Of course the nice thing about a good reputation is that we get to choose who we work with even more than usual.

Today I’m going to share with you how we look at the various inquiries that come to us in all formats to give you an idea of how we deal with them. The advent of being in the social media space means that we get inquiries in lots of different ways now such as twitter, email, phone and facebook to name but a few.

Here are our five top tips to spot the ‘coat tailers’ or those wishing to cash in at your expense.

Is the enquiry overly ‘syrupy’- do they wax lyrical about how marvelous you are and constantly recommend you to their ‘friends’ even if they have barely communicated with you at all in the last few months if ever? (One of my PET hates this one!)
Do they offer you affiliate fees or do they want you to sell their courses/ workshops straight off the bat without reading up about you at all?( If they don’t take the trouble to find out about you first then do you really want to do business?)
Are they desperate to try and write a blog for your site so they can advertise themselves off your back? (There are rules of etiquette with blogging just as with every other form of promotion.)
Do they offer to help you in any way before they ask for something in return? (This may seem a bit odd to some, but our stance is to do just that because we believe the long term contact gain will always be greater than the short term money fix.)
Are they stuck in an old way of advertising themselves? For example; do they want flashing banners or for you to send stuff to your own marketing list or do they use micro media in a ‘push’ fashion? (Read Lee Smallwood’s blog on push media here if you dont understand.)

Of course, you have to remember that we spent a long time attending networking meetings where the various property guru’s hung out so that we could judge for ourselves in advance what they were about as people and as companies. We’ve even tested a few out. That prior knowledge and ground work has stood us in good stead and laid the foundation for how we assess those we choose to do business with.

Who do you choose to be associated or linked to? In this ever increasingly open way of doing business, there really is nowhere to hide, because someone, somewhere will know that person. If their reputation is even slightly questionable, then from our point of view, we would rather say no thanks.