 There are a lot of traits that can help you become a better business owner (and a better person for that matter) – things like integrity, foresight and accountability get a lot of discussion. Another trait that doesn’t get as much discussion but is equally important is transparency.
What do I mean by transparency? Transparency is all about letting yourself shine through – say what you mean and mean what you say. Let people know who you are. Don’t hide behind a screen name, a business name or just being an anonymous presence. (That’s not to say that you can’t be creative with screen names or business names, just make sure people can learn more about you somewhere else). Transparency is about having an opinion and sharing it openly, put some of yourself, your personality into what you do, having a sense of humor and being different. How can transparency help you for Marketing? I’m a big fan of Naomi Dunford - author of Itty Biz, a blog on Home Business Ideas and Havi Brooks - author of the Fluent Self, a blog on getting unstuck personally and professionally. These are 2 extremely popular marketing and self help blogs that have thousands of daily readers. Although the writing is fantastic and they both have great ideas and products, what really makes both of these sites (and women) shine is that they absolutely embrace being themselves, enjoying what they do and putting it out there in a way that’s meaningful to them. The IttyBiz site is not suitable for children (lot of language and innuendo), but that’s part of what makes it stand out. In other words, the reason they are getting a lot of well deserved attention is because they’re smart, funny and transparent. They are honest (perhaps to a fault) and not afraid to let the language fly. Most of us aren’t that interesting (or funny unfortunately), but that doesn’t mean you can’t put your own personality out there. There will be people that don’t like you.
There will also be people that do like you.
But that’s a lot better than people that don’t care at all. How can transparency help you for Sales? Old school sales tactics that attempt to trick people or pressure them into a close don’t work anymore. People want solutions to their problems but they want to buy them on their own schedule from people that they Know, Like and Trust! If you’re transparent, I can easily determine if I Know, Like and Trust you. If I don’t, I won’t buy from you. If I do and if you have a good product that solves my problem, not only will I buy, but I will likely become an advocate for you and extol your virtues to the world. If you’re not transparent? I can’t get to know you - I don’t know if I like you and I’m fairly sure that I don’t trust you. No sale! Even if you send me an email, a direct mail, call me and accost me at my house - I’m still not going to buy anything (and I’ll start warning everyone I know to stay away from you). How can transparency help you for Leadership? Leadership and management can be really challenging these days with a tough economy and layoffs. There’s a reason why Dilbert and The Office are popular - for a lot of cubical dwellers they do a pretty good job of describing what life is like on the inside of the corporate world. If you’ve ever worked for a manager that wasn’t transparent, it can be a terribly frustrating experience. They pass along inexplicable directions and tasks using the company line to explain what’s going on, only to reverse course a couple of weeks later using the same justifications! As a transparent leader, people know what you’re doing, why you’re doing and how it impacts them. The extreme business example of this is using Open Book Management to run the company, effectively letting all of the employees in on what’s going on with the bottom line. It’s been my experience that leading people that know what’s going on is a lot more effective and is really your best opportunity for innovation and improvement. Start adding some transparency to how you run your business and you will soon start seeing some major improvements across the board. | 
