Following my Benjamin Franklin post a while ago, I set out to try to practice the Principle of Temperance.  What I discovered is that this important value can also help guide a business on the path to “mutual success”.

• TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

For me as an individual, I’ve always had a problem with “eating to dullness”…  funny way that Benjamin put it… because if you do overeat, you do feel dull, slow, and lethargic.  My new years resolution was to “eat no seconds”, but my firsts are too big to begin with.  While I did better this week, I did not do great.  I’ll need to keep working on this.

For a company though, Temperance has a different meaning.. I’d call it this:

•  TEMPERANCE. Exploit not your customers; Starve not your suppliers

This week, following this guideline for business, I had some GREAT successes…

1. I struck upon a brilliant way to charge “fairly” for Karmaback… why not charge per fan/follower we bring?!  (Thanks Suzanne, UT MBA 04 for the inspiration)
2. I decided that “Karmaback users” are the “suppliers” for our business.. and we MUST not starve them.
3. In my consulting business, I decided to continue offering my “start-up/small business” discounted rates.

All in all, a good week for business Temperance… now I just need work on that other kind of Temperance (food & drink, begone)!