The desire to create wealth and live a comfortable existence isn’t a crime. It’s what we’re here for. It’s the whole point. It’s what motivates us to make a profit and build a viable business that puts cash into our pockets both now and in the future. Sure, take care of your employees. Reward and motivate the best workers. But the ownership has to come first. Sacrifice and commitment only get you so far. You also need to be selfish.
If you want your small business to excel, you’ve only got seven days a week to make it happen. Use that time wisely. Remember, while your competitors are at the BBQ, fishing up at the lake, or attending their kids’ softball game, you are putting in the hours necessary to build the business and make profits. When you started your business, that’s what you signed on for.
Bread gets stale and milk goes sour. So does an employee’s performance. The biggest mistake owners make is trying to rehab employees. Forget it. Identify the prospects who want to perform and can contribute to your bottom line. You may have to hire five to get one, but it’s worth it. Owners agonize for days and weeks over layoffs for any reason. Fire first and agonize later, because every day you wait can cost your hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.
This is your opportunity to get out there and find a star performer who can bring up sales or find a hundred little ways to cut costs. Everyone’s expendable, and there’s always someone out there more qualified for a position and more eager for the chance to excel.
You’ve got to be a tyrant. Owning a small business isn’t a popularity contest. You cannot be effective as the owner of a business unless you are feared and respected by your employees. There’s no point in managing by the numbers or having a precise operational plan for profits unless you are willing to enforce, enforce, enforce.
When you’re retired, wealthy, and able to spend time raising funds for the poorest members of your congregation; when you’ve built a new parochial school for the children of Botswana; when you have the operational, fingertip controls in place so that you can spend the majority of your time with your kids and grandkids at your winter home in Hilton Head, you’ll be glad you gave up a few Sunday afternoons to work your butt off. You’ll be pleased that you devoted more time to that other religion: profits.