Tell the Truth—it’s Critical for your small business

A client of mine lie to me about the state of affairs of his company and two days of going through his records, I discovered the lie and I approach him.

“Why did you lie to me about….”

Before I could finish my statement, he interjected, ‘common, every businessman lies “

It made remember a client I worked for on a project for 18 months. I practically changed his name to ‘Linus’(apologies to anybody bearing that name)


Every breath about this man emits lies. It was so difficult working with him.

My research instinct went overboard.

In an article by the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, Jason Feifer in his article, “Should entrepreneur lie, it’s a tricky question?” he said “Entrepreneur lie, it’s not like they lie to defraud, but the scrappiness of entrepreneurs inevitably leads to some kind of deception”

So when does a lie go overboard and stretch the limit?

We are not comparing business lies and deception to the greatest con and liar the world has ever seen, Bernie Madoff, who defrauded people with lies and deception to the tune of $65b, but we are looking critically to how the truth can lead to business success.


Being truthful helps hone your vision for the company. While you may be tempted to hype sales figures or inflate projections to make yourself feel better, don’t.

These little untruths will come back to bite you, I can assure that.

Inflating your books of records and convincing yourself that things are great, or even OK, when they are terrible creates serious trouble sooner or later.

If you are sick, do you pretend to yourself, No, so, Successful business people admit they need help? They are willing to acknowledge mistakes and change direction; no matter how embarrassed or awkward it may feel.

They base their decisions on fact, not fiction, and take responsibility for their actions. Telling the truth to your employees shows you care enough about them to share the good and the bad news

If you are facing a cash flow crunch or major crisis, rally the troops around you, ask for their help and work together to turn things around.

Being honest with customers and suppliers is critical to forming strong relationships. If you make a mistake, quickly admit it and find out what it will take to remedy the situation.

Making excuses, pointing fingers, and shifting blame will get you nowhere. Customers appreciate dealing with a company that admits it’s not perfect but work hard to untangle problems.

Deal openly and clearly with all your vendors and suppliers. If your sales are slowing, and you know you won’t be ordering as many raw-materials as you used to, be open to your vendors and suppliers.

So tell the truth and move along. People will respect you, and new opportunities will surely replace the ones you leave behind.