would you do business with...

...someone you have personal issues with?

example: lets say abcbucks is run by someone that you consider to be a homopobic prick. however, they do have a ton of traffic and can send you lots of joins to your gay sites. do you trade traffic with him?

another: what if you just dont like someone. maybe you dont like the way he/she always spam the boards, or you dont like how he treats newbies, or maybe he's a snobby asshole. whatever the reason, its a personal thing, not 100% directly related to business. but, at some point you realize that you could both benefit from some type of business deal. do you do approach him?

just wondering. i have my reasons. :fracais:

Good question Dale :)

Personally i like to look at each time this occurs on an individual basis for example, there are at least 2 large companies who i refuse to do business with because there have been issues between myself and them in the past both personal and professional issues in this instance i would make the sweeping statement of saying 'no' to doing business with the companies as they have affected both my personal and business life at least once in the past and im not going to let them again. Even though they have requested us to work with and for them we refused because ultimately i know the second we would have finished the work it would have been back to how it was before.

However there are also instances where i will overlook certain things to a point for example, there are some large companies that do have a lot of gay traffic who i will speak to even if in the past we have had 'issues' for example, one company recently approached us to do an exit trade with Stud Money, orignally they said the program wouldnt survive without a twink site in its line up.. we went out of our way to ensure that we didnt include a twink site instead however, we launched sites we knew would complement their traffic base and they were actually looking for to send traffic to. Needless to say we ended up doing a traffic trade because they conceeded that they were wrong in their initial comment and that they actually needed us regardless of twink site or not lol

Ultimately, you need to ask yourself if you do business with the individual / company you are hesitant about it is possible for to you to work out those grievances and maybe after time do business with them.

Oh and of course.. that is also presuming that they will want to do business with YOU in return. You never know how they will feel unfortunately :(

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Lee

i have been known to work with programs/people i'm not altogether thrilled with. snotty? not necessarily a problem for me. would i approach that person? it would REALLY depend. if i feel he/she is a prejudiced person, but have no real evidence... it would depend, also.

but people who are violently prejudiced, or make hate comments against groups, no way!

I think I would avoid their services unless it was impossible to not avoid them.

cheers,
Luke

I think it would come down to what other choices you have. Can you find someone who can offer the same thing? Do you really need what the person has to offer?

In my opinion, I would say that I wouldn't, not because I couldn't get along with someone, but because of the thought that maybe down the road they do something that really offends me, or we get into it, and they end up screwing you out of traffic, money, whatever the case may be. If it was something trivial that they did, however, I'd probably work with them but keep an eye out for a replacement just in case something came up down the road.

Good luck with your dilemma, hope it all works out :)

Michael

I think Pixxxel hit the nail on the head. It really boils down to your choices.

I have yanked twink/young guy sponsors off my site completely because they couldn't be bothered to reply to my e-mails.

I yanked another supplier of bear video content for the same reason, but I only did that because Reena at NakedSword offered to have some hairy men/bear banners made for their product.

I have a never bear sponsor who has never replied to my e-mails and they piss me off because they actually live right in my neighbourhood. I continue to promote them, however, because it's a bear bondage site and it does well for me. So, what choice do I have? It's not like there are dozens of bear bondage sponsors out there.

I tried to avoid promoting sponsors using the word "boy" but that became impossible pretty quickly.

I did stop using one sponsor partially because I couldn't stand the biting sarcasm I received every time I e-mailed them. However, had they converted better for me, I would have kept them. By the same token, I might have pushed them harder had I felt better about them personally.

The bottom line is this: If a sponsor treats you badly, they probably treat their customers badly. And I think that's just going to bring trouble down the road.

You don't have to like everyone you deal with, but if they treat you with respect, answer your questions, reply to your e-mails, and pay you on time, then that's the name of the game.

I've learned in a big way over the past year that sometimes you have to set personalities aside. (In AA they talk about principles before personalities.) Ask yourself these questions:

Can or does this sponsor make me money?
Do they seem to have good business practices?
Are they doing anything that I feel is unethical?

And if you're comfortable with those answers, then you can always ask yourself: Do I want to help this sponsor make money?

I think you also have to weigh how much time this sponsor will take up in your head. If you think you can put your feelings aside and get on with making money, fine. If you're going to spend a lot of time thinking or bitching about them, then I'd lean towards just moving on.

Cheers
Michael

Some VERY interesting thoughts posted in this thread already...

For mine, business is business.

I have, and continue to, do business with SOME people that personally, I do not like.

As long as what I don't like about them personally does NOT affect the business side, I can make that seperation.

Shit, one of my billing company rep and myself make constant jokes about the fact we quite dislike each other, and trust me, it IS NOT a joke, but when it comes to business, he is the consumate pro, and I treat him with the respect he deserves as well.

I think if we ever sat down and had a drink together we might actually get on.

Bottom line is that sometimes it is better the devil you know, and also as Eisenhower once said:
It is better to have your enemies inside your tent pissing out that outside your tent pissing in.

For 98% of people I work with... it's not a problem because I quite like them.

:bandana:

For me, it is situational. It depends on what the "offense" is.

There are people in this industry that I refuse to work with, and have turned down very large accounts with, because of one thing or another.

For most aspects in this business, there are plenty of contracts and traffic to go around and there are too many people in the industry that i know well and feel comfortable with to waste my time with someone who is untrustworthy, etc. Reputation is very important in this business, and I pay close attention to it.

I know for myself I'm more aggressive in pushing sites for folks that have proven to be supportive whenever I've needed something, and when I do have the occasional non response, or a shitty response or given non professional treatment, I could really care less about giving them MY time to promote their programs ... and I really don't much give a rats ass how good their site is to be honest. I understand the idea behind having them pissing from within your tent as opposed to pissing in from without ... but it's still piss and carries a stench either way.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Dzinerbear

Can or does this sponsor make me money?
Do they seem to have good business practices?
Are they doing anything that I feel is unethical?

And if you're comfortable with those answers, then you can always ask yourself: Do I want to help this sponsor make money?

I think you also have to weigh how much time this sponsor will take up in your head. If you think you can put your feelings aside and get on with making money, fine. If you're going to spend a lot of time thinking or bitching about them, then I'd lean towards just moving on.

Cheers
Michael

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Man, I find myself agreeing with you a lot. Ok, I think the same way. I evaluate it in my head. Does the BUSINESS result outweigh the personal aspect? Bottom line for me is, I have to make X dollars and if i have to work with someone who is an asshole, but is running a good ship, then I'll do it.

My partners know me well now, I'm cold when it comes to business and I'm not the guy that's going to do a bunch of small talk to make people happy. I try to judge all business decisions by how the other person will perform. I don't care if the person loves to snort coke off the ass of a quadraplegic midget on saturday nights, as long as he does what he said he can do, when he says it'll be done. Performance is big for me. I have a list of people I don't do much business with, but I love to talk to and hang out with. They just don't perform.