mercoledì 7 gennaio 2015

Business is not about making money

Ok, somebody might feel strange at this statement, but yes, it is my strong belief that business is not about making money.

Life is about making money, whether you are in business  or not, otherwise unless you have a pile of cash inherited somehow, you will end up sleeping on the streets and starving to death.

Business is about not loosing those money.

Main reason for a business to exist is to deliver as promised and keep the clients happy, at the right price, not "to make money".  Money will come if you keep up with the first law of business, which is above.

How can you lose those money?

Million ways, plus one.

To start with; there is the government that wants at all costs to kill your business ASAP by taxing you to death and also by using your business, free of charge of course, to collect taxes for them, like VAT that helps you not, you merely take it from the client on top of what you really charge for the job, than without making any profit for this work you do, you give it to the government so they don't shut you down and put you in jail for not working for free for them.  Extortion by the law.

And that is not the only way the government is twisting your arm to rip you off, thus until you are in business, you need to know all those ways, keep them in your mind and price your job accordingly so you can cope with the situation.

Another enemy of your business is YOU, and your family.

Yap, you need to live too, wife needs new curtains one week yes and the other one too, same for skirts, shoes, more shoes, other shoes, than think of kids.... bleeding money.

So the first question they ask you is: You are in business, where is the money?  Why can't we afford a jet plane like Rockefeller?  Or at least new tires at the car...!

To top up, you need to work extra, you are never rested enough, take wrong decisions, postpone too much doing things, start paying low salaries to cut loss, loose best employees because of that, bottom line, go bankrupt.  All your fault.

So don't tell me is not your fault....


Than there are the friends and relatives, I mean, uhhh... you are in business, darn it, if not you who is going to help them?  A job, yap, right, they are not the best fit person for that job, but you grew up together, and yes I know the clients are not happy with them on the job, but what can you do...  so you go bankrupt for helping them out for a while, than they are back in trouble, and so are you.

And last but not least, the clients, demanding more than contracted, willing to pay less than contracted, never happy with the price, and if and when possible, pay you six months later than agreed, or latter...

And this kills the cash flow, and the cash flow is the blood of your business, and with no blood the business collapses and dies, although you have good employees, deliver fine jobs in time, and there is a bunch of cash you have to recuperate from the market for jobs well done, thus in theory you are rich, but in reality penniless, therefore dead.

Life sucks, especially for start-uppers, mostly if they have no big cash backup to resist until the cash flow becomes steady, so if you want to make it, you need to abide to rules that you might hate, but they keep you alive, you have to accept that friends, relatives and family consider you a bad guy, self centred and that ignores their needs, somehow you thought about your nastiest professors in school, but hey... you need to admit that what you studied with them, while hating them, are things you still know and use, and help you make a living in life, while things you have not learned just because the nice professors did not wanted to be the bad guys, is exactly the things you need but cannot use, you loved the professors, but they made you a looser.

Is like being a surgeon, you cut the dude with a knife, chop their bodies, take parts out of it and sow them back like a salami, but you do it to save them, they might hate you for the pain you inflict them, and perhaps for living them without a limb or an organ.  But if you do not do it, they are as good as dead, so they should be grateful to you, but they are not.  Nor the family or friends.

That's it, go ahead, bow your head, face the winds and the storms, let them hate you, learn to stay alive, and one day you will eventually go pension, or make money... who can tell.

Copyrighted by Emil Pop, 2015, all rights reserved.