Two Big Questions

[adrianh]

When I was still working for a boss all I expected of them was to pay me on time. If they didn’t and they didn’t have a proper excuse I got angry “especially in my first 5 years” I am a motivated worker all I want is my money when it is due. What normally followed after I got angry I think may be inappropriate for this thread.

Treat your workers right respect them enough to pay them on time and they will stay behind finish a job “after clocking out” they will walk with you and work hard. Treat them like dirt and you inherit the desert.

So what is the company to do when the workers do not produce fast enough causing the customers not to pay in time for payday?

[adrianh]

Attention. Whether that's the carrot or the stick.

Even flagellation is perversely perceived as a form of recognition. (Dig deep enough into why naughty boys are naughty, and ultimately it's related to attention seeking).



Give visible signs that you are paying attention.

Know people's names, and greet them when you see them by name (the boss knows who I am).
Congratulate them (or whip them) for something specific that they did that they weren't necessarily aware that you were aware of.

In smaller operations, or if you're in charge of a smaller team, be aware of background info - married, in a relationship, children, studies, hobbies, sports...
Don't spend much time yacking about it, (that would be counter-productive), but every now a question or comment on the subject helps show you "care".

It's weird what works and what doesn't. It's certainly not all obvious, and sometimes it's plainly counter-intuitive. For example:

My personal experience of the most effective way to massively reduce the productivity and commitment of an employee is to give them a big pay increase. Kinda complicated to explain why, but damn - give too much too soon and every time a coconut, expect problems - it's just a matter of time (and normally not long too).

I've got in the habit of giving multiple smaller, interim increments to folks who have made a big step up nowadays rather than one big jump. So far that seems to work much better (touches wood).

Every single time I hired a new employee some of the old ones came demanding an increase. They are simply unable to comprehend that one doesn't employ another person to come and work for you because you have too much money, you do it because you have too much work (and the existing employees may just be the problem causing the bottle neck)

[pmbguy]

Let’s be realistic and honest. The boss is the boss. He will always act in his own best interest. He created the business to make himself money. When he hires people it’s ultimately to make himself more money. If you work for a boss and you do not accept this then you are a fool.

If you work for a boss and you want to make more money then make him more money.

If you feel that you can do better, then do better and stop complaining.

[tec0]

So what is the company to do when the workers do not produce fast enough causing the customers not to pay in time for payday?

Well if it is the workers fault then that in my opinion is understandable “but that is just my opinion” that there money may be a bit late. But also as the boss you need to be clear about when you need something done and realistic about the time it will take. If $h!t happens it happens it’s not always fun but what can you do?

[Dave A]

So what is the company to do when the workers do not produce fast enough causing the customers not to pay in time for payday?

Well if it is the workers fault then that in my opinion is understandable “but that is just my opinion” that there money may be a bit late. But also as the boss you need to be clear about when you need something done and realistic about the time it will take. If $h!t happens it happens it’s not always fun but what can you do?

If it's the exception to the rule, fair enough probably. You just need to keep your staff in the loop though. If they don't understand what is causing the problem, and how they can help solve it, they're not going to magically change their ways for the better.

If it happens fairly often though, it is the boss's fault. The boss is responsible for the business plan, and its implementation.

For me, paying staff (and creditors, and yourself for that matter) on time is one of the acid tests as to whether you're a good boss or not.

[Blurock]

My best bosses gave me the privilege of working with them.
The worst bosses never let you forget that you work for them.
There is a vast difference and the worst bosses never get it, it creates the scenario where you do a certain function one hundred times and they say nothing, but make one mistake and they never let you forget it.

The best bosses are always saying things like 'Great job,' or 'Well done,' when you make a mistake they help you fix it and ask 'What did you learn from that mistake?'

Is not about the team? Great businesses have great bosses who manage (not control) great teams. Teams are informed. Teams have a purpose and a goal. Great Teams stand up for each other and they share the burden. Great teams share and celebrate their success... and then set the bar a little higher.

[adrianh]

You know, I am about 1mm away for tossing the whole lot. I am so tired of being locked into the ever consuming spiral of no working capital and and banks eating up whatever money one makes. If you owe the bank R20K they want R25K. When they hand it over to the lawyers you owe R30K. You have R50K worth of work that is 95% ready but you can't get one supplier to deliver a small part so you can't deliver and invoice. You can't pay the staff because you can't get the R50K in. You have R75K and a car sitting in a an estate but you can't get any of it out because the government want all the licences and fines paid first therefore you can't register the car and get the estate to pay out. You can't get a client to pay R3.7K until the work is complete but he f*cked the artwork up so the work has to be redone. You can't get R15K worth of work done because you are unable to finance R400 worth of wood to do the work.

Right, so lets look at the other side, you have a family member who is putting R1million into this venture, R3million into that venture, busy with the development of an entire suburb which requires R5million in the first 3 months, R10million in the R50million at the end of the year and R100million at the end of three years.

Now, there are people that know how to make money and then there are the dumba$$es, like me, who will spend their entire lives going round and round fighting for survival every day because we simply do not have the capital to give the ball enough momentum to get moving and to keep it moving when cash flow is not working out as planned.

The only thing that speaking to my family member does these days is to depress me terribly. Not because he is so wealthy or good at making money, no, because I am so bad at it. I am simply sick and tired of the constant battle. He would say thing like you should have 3 months worth of capital in the bank to buffer cash flow, no $hiz, as my daughter would say, if I had it would be in the bank.

Anyhow, you speak of motivation, paying employees, treating employees fairly, being a k@k boss & business man...there is also another side to that, I've spent a lifetime developing the skills to have a business, my wife and I work 18 hours a day, we share whatever money comes in with the staff because we know that they have commitments just like we do. Employees get to go home and complain about the k@k boss but we get to stress all day every day about getting the business to be self sufficient so that it not only pays for the staff but also pays us enough so that we can not only live normal lives but also pay off the loans that keep us circling the ar$e end of the economy.

So, this is what I have to say to employees who p1$$ off at 5 to go home and whinge about the k@k boss who doesn't pay them on time, who doesn't pay for their education, who tries to save money each and every way he can, who is sometimes in a terrible mood because three banks want to take him to court: FU

I understand that the working class live very difficult lives, I understand that they fight of every cent and that they also want to do better. I understand that many of them are exceptional people who would do brilliantly if they had the opportunity, but they need to understand the average little business person also has a k@k life and also fights for survival.

The thing that saddens me most about the lives we all lead is that the quality of life depends on one thing and one thing only, namely money. No matter what rubbish you speak of love and attitude and all that stuff, you need to eat, you need to have a place to sleep and you need a place to take a dump. The quality of all those things, including your health, depends purely on your money or your access to money. Some people are brilliant at making money and they amass great wealth, most people are not able to do that and a lot of people simply don't have the opportunity to even get started.

I now understand what goes on in the mind of a guy standing at the robot, the guy that simply has no opportunities yet he sees all those flashy cars driving by each day. He simply does not know how to get from where he is to the next level, let alone to the level of the guy driving the flashy car. I also understand what goes on in the mind of the gangster and the drug dealer who sees money being made through selling a product at a fat profit to people who willingly buy the product.

We speak of a free market and a capitalist society, it's fine if you are in a position to partake in the economy but if you are on the fringe and you are unable to get into the stream you are simply f*cked..

My final word on this topic is this: If one is unable to make money in this world you are stuffed. This world is not about doing business or careers or anything abstract, it is simply about making money.

Ok, end of rant, I am no longer depressed about it, I simply accept that some do well and some don't...

[adrianh]

One thing that rests heavily on my mind is that I've already outlived my father and I am still nowhere. The only question on my mind now is this: "how does one make a lot of money fast" if I am unable to answer that question then the alternative is to thoroughly screw the system and go out with a bang (the sad thing is that I can think of many ways to make such a statement yet I am unable to think of ways to make lots of money...shows you how the system screws with our minds)

[Blurock]

It takes money to make money.

It is so much harder for a small business as no-one would give you a chance to just get ahead. If I have money to buy raw materials (preferably cash, so I can take a cash discount which improves the margin), I can make enough product to sell and get the wheels of the merry-go-round going. I am prepared to pay taxes and levies and do whatever it takes to make the business grow, so that it can create more wealth. I am prepared to share that wealth in way of job creation and by making use of more services.

I will help to stimulate the economy by employing a bookkeeper and later an accountant as the business grows. I will need short term insurance, legal advice and financial guidance. I will need a bank and a guy to build a web site. I will need transport for the products that I sell.

That is how wealth is created and how my suppliers and service providers can also benefit from my business. Now multiply my small business 100 times and Voila!

Pity that banks and government know so little about business and wealth creation...

[adrianh]

What gets me down is that at least 60% of a salary goes to the government in taxes, 20-30% to the banks and if you are lucky you keep the rest. Most South Africans spend 60% on the government 37% on banks and 10% on themselves. Yes of course the math doesn't make sense and that is why so many people are in the dwang.

My view is that the biggest culprits are not the people who lend money, it is the banks and the lawyers who suck the population dry. We are unable to function without banks yet the banks charge us for having money, for not having money, for using our money, for asking how much money we have. It is simply absurd. When you are unable to pay your debts the lawyers increase your debt, now that is completely ridiculous. You are in the dwang and you go deeper in the dwang because you are in the dwang in the first place. Are we totally insane! How on earth is anybody ever supposed to dig themselves out of the hole if the hole simply gets bigger all the time.

Again, I am starting to think long the lines of turning the equation upside down, even if it is just for myself. I have a mission and it is to learn how to screw the system!

[tec0]

One thing that rests heavily on my mind is that I've already outlived my father and I am still nowhere. The only question on my mind now is this: "how does one make a lot of money fast" if I am unable to answer that question then the alternative is to thoroughly screw the system and go out with a bang (the sad thing is that I can think of many ways to make such a statement yet I am unable to think of ways to make lots of money...shows you how the system screws with our minds)

Now imagine seeing someone else walking off with your business and make a success out of it to the highest degree. Then you are where I was. Yes they “friends/family” took everything from me. I have nothing and as you know by now I am unemployable due to many aspects. I have a violent history...

So I gave up for a while. Worst mistake I could have made. You have no idea how close I am to losing my sanity. Scary close... But I decided to surrender my mind to faith and hope that there is still hope.

Now somehow I am on my way again. I wake up with hope... Something that I haven’t had in a long long time. Despite everything I am probably the one person that actually knows what you are going trough.

Good luck sir.

[Blurock]

Debt is not really the problem. The problem is not being able to service the debt. In other words cash flow. Once you fall into a debt spiral it is extremely difficult to get out of it.

There are times that one needs to make debt. Use the gearing to accelerate your business and to take it to a higher level. If you can leverage off the debt to generate an additional margin, go for it. Never make debt to satisfy an emotion or urge. Forget about that red sports car until you can buy it cash!

[adrianh]

@Blurock - I agree with you.

We haven't bought anything on credit in the past 5 years. Everything we do is cash. We simply don't buy anything we don't need, the TV has been broken for a very log time and so has many other things. We are totally focused on keeping our overheads down and productivity. I am now in a position where I have good clients who will buy off my shelf if I had stock. They buy every month and I will be able to talk them into buying additional products if I were able to develop them and keep them on the shelf. I also have very good service based customers. They provide us with on going work and they would also increase their order rate if we were able to keep up with them. I am at a point in the business where the problems we face is not that we don't have enough work the problem is that we do not have the cash at hand to service a growing customer base properly. We have lots customers because we are driven by survival tactics rather than long term development strategies. Long term strategies are great but you cannot win the war if you get bogged down in the daily battles. The way I see cash at hand is like being able to circumvent the daily skirmishes so as to focus on moving the frontline forward. The trick is to get out of the daily skirmishes. I suppose getting rid of debt one by one is a part of the answer because it takes away the burden of having to pay exorbitant fees to have the debt. Come to think of it, could it be that they impose such high fees and low settlements so as to force you to settle the debt early....food for thought....

[adrianh]

Now imagine seeing someone else walking off with your business and make a success out of it to the highest degree. Then you are where I was. Yes they “friends/family” took everything from me. I have nothing and as you know by now I am unemployable due to many aspects. I have a violent history...

So I gave up for a while. Worst mistake I could have made. You have no idea how close I am to losing my sanity. Scary close... But I decided to surrender my mind to faith and hope that there is still hope.

Now somehow I am on my way again. I wake up with hope... Something that I haven’t had in a long long time. Despite everything I am probably the one person that actually knows what you are going trough.

Good luck sir.

You have a choice in life, fall down and stay down or dust yourself off and try gain. My view is that one never stays down, you may have to change your outlook, your chosen path and even your reason for walking the path but you get up and take some or other path. Our goals don't have to be grand or particularly meaningful to the rest of the world just as long as we have something or the other that we are striving for. The route I am now going to follow is to seek out money...not business but money, if doing business Is the vehicle to get there then so be it.

[tec0]

I think we are

My new business is slowly stabilizing and I think by February or latest March I will be on top of my game again. Stable income with virtually no overhead AND this time around no banks no loans no debt no backstabbing friends. The next 3 to 4 years is going to be very good to me “judging on the size of the contracts” So long term I am good and short term I am stable that is all I need for now. But the bank right now they are a glorified safe... I don’t want their credit I don’t need them this time I am doing it without them.