When businesses are too public about their political views, they may drive away potential customers.
While this isn’t always the case, many people who strongly oppose a certain political view won’t do business with someone who supports that view.
According to the NSBA (national small business association), 74% of small businesses believe that their business is represented by either the democratic or the republican party.
While this isn’t an inherently bad thing, some business owners take their political views and recklessly infuse them into their businesses without thinking of the consequences.
A recent example of this is Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow.
Lindell claimed in a recent commercial that he and his family, along with many other Americans, were being greatly affected by cancel culture.
For those who don’t know, cancel culture is a predominantly right-winged term, meaning that support has been pulled from a person in question because society wants to use racism, sexism, or any other such issue, to justify their withdrawal of support.
In layman’s terms, Lindell claimed that his business had been accused of something like racism, solely to “cancel” him.
While everyone has a right to their own political beliefs, broadcasting them on television as an official statement for your business, like Lindell did, is downright foolish.
In fact, this commercial, and other claims made by the My Pillow CEO, backfired.
Along with his controversial commercial, Lindell also promotes the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by the Biden administration.
Due to these views being publicized, many social media users have called for boycotts, and some retail locations, like Bed Bath and Beyond, have stopped selling My Pillow products.
However, not all political problems in business are caused directly by outspoken employees or owners, but by the actions of their customers and clients.
An unfortunate example of this is the National Butterfly Conservatory in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
This conservatory has been forced to close down indefinitely due to QAnon-related conspiracy theories.
Usually, a conspiracy theory would not cause a business to shut down, but the false claims leveled against the conservatory have been adopted by a large portion of the local population.
The accusations leveled against the conservatory range from helping illegal immigrants cross the border, (because of its close proximity to Mexico,) to wild claims of sex trafficking.
This matter was only heightened when congressional candidate Kimberly Lowe traveled to the conservatory and heightened the claims.
According to Marianna Treviño-Wright, the center’s executive director, when Lowe arrived she asked to “see all the illegals crossing on the raft.”
Treviño-Wright also reported that, when she asked Lowe to leave the premises, Lowe attempted to tackle her.
All this harassment started when the National Butterfly Conservatory filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s supposed border wall because it would cut through and damage the butterfly’s habitat.
This lawsuit was, of course, not an attack against the Trump administration itself, but many locals perceived it as one. This instance was less political bias on the business owner’s part, but still was infused with politics because of what locals inferred the conservatory’s political beliefs were.
From where I’m standing, politics in business always leads to some type of trouble, hence politics should be kept separate from business, so as not to offend clients or employees.