Back in my college years, I earned a degree in Natural Resource Economics. That specialized field of economics allows its practitioners to calculate measurable values for intangibles such as environmental and social impacts. For example, the costs of nuclear power far exceed the mere costs of uranium and plant operation and must include a long list of associated impacts, not the least of which are the long-term costs of waste disposal. Conversely, the benefits of organic farming far exceed the wages earned by farm workers and the income generated from the sale of their produce. Those benefits include improvements to soil structure, fewer chemicals entering the soil and surrounding environment, and healthier lifestyles that are accompanied by a probable reduction in a wide range of illnesses.

As a small business owner, I often challenge myself to attach values (both costs and benefits) to day-to-day business decisions. Most often, there is not a need to painstakingly calculate the specifics of those values, instead simply recognizing that they exist and are an integral part of the equation. For example, there is something inherently intuitive that tells me that – whenever possible – I should choose to work with local small businesses rather than large, distant corporations. (In the world of virtual business, where transportation costs do not enter into the equation, distance may not be as much of a factor, and the best decision may be to work with the smallest possible business that can meet our needs and that shares our business philosophy and objectives.) My business purchases a significant volume of printing services on behalf of our clients, and we favor vendors who have made an ongoing commitment to green printing standards – everything from the highest practical recycled content in paper to the use of non-petroleum based inks to the lowest possible VOC (volatile organic compound) atmospheric emissions. Generally speaking, green printing standards also represent efficiencies in production and highly competitive pricing.

When a supplier consistently meets or exceeds our expectations with respect to quality standards, and provides us with personalized service at a fair price, another factor comes into play. That factor is perhaps the most important of all, and that factor is loyalty. Loyalty inherently works in two directions and is based upon mutual respect between both parties. It also operates through what is essentially a chain of custody. If I am loyal to one of my suppliers when purchasing goods or services on behalf of one of our clients, that loyalty is indirectly extended to the client. Loyalty has its rewards, typically in the form of preferential pricing, and the result is that everyone even indirectly involved benefits from its presence. It may seem odd that loyalty tends to take pricing out of the equation; however, the accompanying respect and trust ensure that the best possible pricing will always come into play.

When a business is fortunate enough to enjoy this type of arrangement, it is essential that it be consistently maintained and its fragility protected. Just as an instance of marital infidelity may be forgiven, the offense will remain unforgotten and it will forever change the dynamics and purity of the relationship. If you are fortunate enough to have built this type of relationship in your business dealings – and I like to believe that this is the only type of relationship in which my own business seeks to engage – do everything possible to see that it is protected and preserved.

It is the routine practice of my business to do everything possible to help our clients’ businesses to succeed. We try to proactively develop new ideas that will benefit our clients, we make ourselves readily accessible far in excess of what others might consider to be normal business hours, and we do our best to treat even the smallest client as our single most important account, with every project our latest opportunity to creatively excel. When a client needs us, we drop whatever we are doing to focus on that new top priority. We also make an ongoing effort to routinely provide services that have a significant and measurable value – without charge – to each client. Our business is not obsessed with billing at the expense of doing what is right.

As I have alluded right from the start, a tangible price can be attached to business loyalty. That price equates to the incremental business income that is generated as a result of the loyalty factor, compounded by the financial savings that result from this same special business relationship. We all like our efforts to be both appreciated and acknowledged, and loyalty is the perfect means of expression. Not surprisingly, we go far out of our way to do our best work for our most loyal clients, and that “best work” has a positive impact upon the bottom line of the clients’ businesses.

In summary, yes you can calculate and attach a price to business loyalty, but the value of the loyalty itself is totally immeasurable.

Author’s Note: The Wikia Search project ended on March 31, 2009, due to a lack of funding. Click here for more information.

I first became aware of the Wikia Search project when I read a couple of articles in a January 2008 issue of eWeek Magazine. An alpha version of Wikia Search was launched in early January by the same folks who brought us Wikipedia. The idea was to provide a socially driven, open-source alternative to Google, Yahoo, and the other major search engines. (Sounds a bit like the inspiration for the Open Directory Project, doesn’t it?) With Wikia Search, users filter sites and rank search results, influencing subsequent searches.

Wikia Search uses the Grub web crawler, acquired from the old LookSmart search engine last year, in order to build content. Individuals can donate unused bandwidth on their computers to help Grub to search for new content, in a similar fashion to the better known SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Project.

The project started modestly, by search standards, indexing between 50 million and 100 million pages. The hope is that users will then rank the relevance of the search results and feed data back into the search process. Needless to say, this is not the way that conventional search engines have worked. Even the Open Directory Project, with its thousands of editors, was not directly open to user input in this manner. According to eWeek, other search startups are attempting to develop similar concepts, including Eurekster, Mahalo and Lijit, but none of these starts out with the social computing experience or resources of Wikia. This type of search could be the wave of the future.

Six months later, where is Wikia Search today? Good question. If you type www.wikiasearch.com into your browser, you will not find the site. (What kind of logic does that demonstrate?) Already re-launched on June 3, 2008, it is said that the project is now in its “second alpha” release. In other words, it is not yet in even the beta stage of development. All criticisms aside, Wikia Search holds tremendous potential, and there is no reason not to embrace the engine early on.

Go to Wikia Search, enter the name of your business into the search box, then wait for the results. If your business does not appear, click on the “add suggestions” link at the top of the search results or enter your URL into the “Add to this result” text entry box to the right. If your business already appears, but appears on down the list of results, you can influence the sequence of the search results by passing your cursor over your listing and adding a rating to the options that will appear. Of course, you can also be socially responsible and add relevant content that has nothing to do with your business or personal interests.

As I write this, there have been 740,925 contributions to the search results on Wikia Search. If you go to the menu and choose Recent Changes > Live Changes, you will actually see the changes that you have entered, along with your IP address or (if you have signed up), your user ID.

If you go to the Wikia Search community pages, you can read more about the project and its admirable organizational principles: Transparency, Community, Privacy, and Quality.