Have faith: put trust in your fellow businesses

Even in these days of difficult economic conditions, and supposedly hard-nosed business people, I still think there is room for trust.

In six years of running my own businesses, I have employed a basic trust in my dealings with clients. Thus, if I have had to make an outlay of money to buy a service on behalf of a client who has yet to furnish me with a penny, I have done so on many occasions.

Only once has theis resulted in a problem with delayed payment from the client that took so long, it resulted in my having to go to the online claims court to recover the money (successfully, I would add).

Now I know that many of the harder-edged business folk will say that I am foolish to pay out money before getting any in; even if the trust has only been breached once, it does not make good cash flow sense. That is, of course, true. Most of the outlay amounts have been small - two or three figures - so there has been little risk.

Despite any "loss of interest" I still feel it is good to act in good faith, and I hope to continue to do so.

Remember that trust works two ways in the end.