Do You Think You Can Run a Business With Honesty?

Question

I mean truthfully, honestly without cutting corners, or trying to make an extra buck?

Now, are these sins of a business cheats customers and clients? Will they have to answer to God for this?

Answer 1

yes, I think you can, many try to raise their prices so much to make a buck, that they price themselves right out of business. You have to make a profit but you need to be realistic about making a buck. If people like your product and you are an honest person and keep your prices fair and still make a profit you can and will make it work.

Answer 2

tHERE IS A PLACE IN SCRIPTURE wHERE jESUS TALKS ABOUT OPPS the knowledge of buying and selling livestock as if knowing how to do so was a thing men knew how to do and yet taking care of their own souls they knew not. There si in that comparison no derogatory implictations about buying and selling, and so the mere act of doing so is not sinful. Interestingly that which we translate thou shalt not lie is actually refering to a specific type of lie where in we say things about another that are false. All that aside if we are to conform to the image of Christ then buying and selling should not be on ones agenda. The Amish have this idea we are to work with our hands, and as can be seen in the recent day killings in an Amish school they fair better than most dealing with life in general. 96% of their youth who enter into our society one day soon after return to the Amish community.
If they can be used as an example (since they do go out into the surrounding communities and work doing things like fencing. The Amish charge even higher than the going market value but are expremely up front, do not cut corners stand behind their work and do not bargain (to my knowledge) seem to get plenty of business and have an excellent record in the 2 communities I am aware of.

we live in a culture who began as a bargaining when you buy business model, and in that there was a let the buyer beware attitude, from there we moved to our present system where goods are often too saphisticated to understand b4 buying, and or, the background is so far removed from the buyer there is no way to know what went on say in Chilee where we will soon be getting cherries from. These situations leave way too much wiggle room for rationalizing sinful behaviors and when this happens and sin is not easily brought into account then cheating runs rampant.

Where it is the worst is any place where there is a bottle neck in the supplying process. A good example is a meat packing plant. They purchase from many not organized farmers or ranchers, and sell to many disorganized purchasers. It was once common knowledge that in the meat packing industry that the entire operation could be operated on the profit gotten from by products alone, wages, maintainance, property costs and all of these and more were paid for through the sale of by products, and yet the mark up even then on a steak was well over 100%. Now they put the meat and some water in a pressurized container and add 20% to the weight. Farmers on the other hand put in many hours raising their stock and have a low % mark up.

My guess is this the owners of meat packing plants are going to be judged severely and if they are church goers and their congregations are not calling them to account their pastors and congreagations will also be heald to account. How Jesus and His system of pardoning sinners is going to fit in will no doubt on an individual basis but right here is a place where the rubber meats the road. If I grab a package on ice on the way out of the grocery I suffer conviction and can not even decide to pay it next time I go as was my intention and end up going back waiting in line and paying. I assume if I got in a habit of not listening to that conviction I would eventually lose the filling I continually tryto build up and may get to that point where Peter describes as a dog going back and eating his own vomit or be lost. Imagen what a meat packer owner must have to do to live with himself and could such a person actually be saved, in the end.

so it is possible but probably not gonna get rich in the process. Still providing a needed service at a fair price has another type of reward.

Answer 3

Certainly. My parents (and my grandfather before them) have been doing it for 20+ years. I think it's harder to be honest and fair the bigger a company gets, but it can still be done.

As for the sins of businesses that cheat customers . . . well, I've always held that you'll get yours if you know what you're doing is wrong. But at the same time, I'm a huge fan of 'caveat emptor'- buyers beware. If you aren't purposely lying/cutting corners, but still manage to get your way because people don't look hard enough, don't read the fine print- it's their fault, as well.

Answer 4

Youve got to make a profit, but at the same time not cheat customers. Jesus got mad at the moneychangers in the temple for cheating people. I think its a fine line that is possible to keep.

Answer 5

If you endeavored to be a true honest businessman, you would have the most customers and the least money.

The meek shall inherit the earth, hallelujah.

Answer 6

use just weight and give fair measur
have a fair proffit margin and dont charge ursury
of course man will answer .greed has its own hell

Answer 7

YES ....I only want a business like this..

Answer 8

yes.

Answer 9

there is nothing wrong making money