Your vendors can make or mar your events

It’s amazing to me how little business owners sometimes know about their own vendors’ businesses and their reputations. Think about your current vendors and ask yourself how much you know about each and every one.

What do you know about their business situation? Are you happy with their service and do you feel 100 per cent secure that in an emergency these vendors will step up and do the right thing for you and your customers? Or, are you a little nervous that they will drop the ball, putting you and your business reputation at risk?

As a business owner, you have a responsibility to make sure your vendors are an extension of your business, and that they act accordingly. They should understand that what you require is not a request, but a necessity, if they want to do business with you.

Build peaceful relationship among different tribes, faiths in Nigeria- NASFAT Chief Missioner

Check out some tips on vendors’ selections:

1. Make sure the vendor you are considering is a cultural fit. Do this vendor’s beliefs march with your business beliefs, and do you connect on a visionary level?
2. Create a service level agreement (SLA). SLA states what you expect from your vendors, how they will act, dress, work and conduct business on your behalf. Your vendors sign this agreement so there is no question as to what the relationship requires.
3. Require vendors to fill out and sign a follow-up sheet. A follow-up sheet, which each vendor fills out and signs, contains a check-list to help vendors self-evaluate whether they have finished the work according to the agreement. The list also gives you a way to manage and rate your vendors’ performance just as you would do that of your employees.

You must consider your vendors a part of your team and expects your employees to treat them as such. But this regard goes both ways. Vendors are expected to play by the rules you have set out in writing.

Before you trust your own business to an unknown, or little-known, vendor or subcontractor, put in the work necessary to do it right the first time.

And if a vendor fails to live up to your expectations, don’t hesitate to let him or her know it. Having a written agreement with the specifics about the partnership will ensure that you both know what is expected.

Don’t give room for hazards. Go for standards.