The Extra Nice Entrepreneur. (Is It Healthy or Destructive for a Business).

My friends usually tell me that I have an extra nice nature, a nature where I sometimes set my own interest aside to satisfy the needs of those around me.
This attitude sometimes gets me into trouble and I usually have to find my way out of it but I realize that after sometime, the same thing happens either with the same person or with another person entirely.

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I however took this attitude into business and it took time before I realized how this attitude of mine was getting me into trouble, I then decided to read about if there was anything like being too nice when it comes to handling business matters and I found out something's which will be of help to entrepreneurs as well as leaders of organizations.
Just before I share some of the tips I have learnt, I will like to share two instances at which I allowed my emotional status to rule over my brain.

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There was a time I needed a sales representative, I was going to be pretty busy with other things while I needed some time to rest, so I displayed a sign post to notify people of the fact that a sales person was needed to help me in my store.
I received several applications but there was this particular lady who looked helpless, she had an ugly scar on her face and I knew that people will not want to employ someone like that.
I ignored the fact that she was not smart and she had a little bit of body odour and I employed her totally ignoring what my brain told me.

The period she worked with me was the worst I ever experienced, sales was really poor as I lost some of my customers.
The few who gave me feedback told me about how poor her customer communication skill was, I was still thinking of a proper way to lay her off so she does not think the scar caused anything, when she lied to me that she was feeling sick and she needed to go home (this happened after I paid her for the month). She only called me the next morning to tell me she was no longer interested in the job and I also found out that she stole some things before she left.

The other instance where my over nice attitude got me into trouble was that it made me loose a good customer.
In my own opinion, whenever I do not have something, I usually redirect my customers to places where they will be able to get what they desire, only recently did I realize that whenever I refer some of my customers to those places, they never come back.
The bad thing is that, those places I refer them to, is a place where I cannot compete with for the moment as a result of my financial capacity.
I usually feel bad whenever I remember that I was the one who referred my customers there and I never saw them again after that time.
Now, this is my personal experience about being extra nice as an entrepreneur, now let me share some of the lessons I learnt from reading with you.

• It is usually easy to make a wrong choice in hiring, but fixing the mismatch is usually a difficult thing to do.

• People begin to take advantage of you and your business.

• When you are too nice as a leader, it usually results into wastage of time, effort and resources.

• Being too nice results into loosing customers just like I mentioned in the story I told you.

This is however not a post to make you stop being nice, there are lots of advantage that come with being nice to customer's and employees but as much as you try to be nice, always put the interest of your business and that of your company first.
I hope this post was helpful, thanks a lot for reading. I am @oluwatobiloba.