5 cold hard realities about owning a business

Point #1 seems weird to me, because money is easy to pile up and you can get it from anywhere, but work is hard.  When I can contribute time or money, I always choose money.

Perhaps it's different on business scale -- some angel who can contribute $10 million to your venture is worth more than most any worker.

You think money is easy to pile up and it's easy to get it from anywhere? If that's the case, can you share pictures of your mansions and jet planes?

Time is time. Money is money. Everyone has time. Not everyone has money. 

Yeah, where can I get these piles of money?

Five points is just common sense. Most don't even know what common sense is let alone practice it. Probably why so many of 'em fail. As for piles of money ... lol ... I'll take some.

I agree wholeheartedly I have owned my own business since 1997 and have had my own lessons that I have learned .Funny they nearly mirror what you have expressed . I will add to

#4...Never make a final payment to workers / employees / subcontractors until completion of the project !!! No incentive or motivation leads to unfinished projects!!!

I never owned my own business but I gotta agree those are very valid points.

#6 - Don't play the game unless you're willing to lose it all.........

You're place behind me in line is assured.

#7 - "If you wait until all the lights are green, you will never get the car out of the garage."

I think you might change your mind on that if you ever (heaven forbid) love someone whose been diagnosed with terminal cancer (or get diagnosed with it yourself).  Money is bullshit and time is the only thing that matters. 

My oldest friend died a few weeks ago from terminal cancer. So it is something I am familiar with.

My point still stands. When it comes to business risk capital trumps time.

cause i know your a bookwork frogboy.......read this ....

http://www.eternalcog.org/hwabooklets/7lawsofsuccess.html

its called the 7 laws of success, i read this book when i was about 12, and still remember it and try to read it once a year.....

Employees are rungs on the ladder of success - don't hesitate to step on them...

Thanks!

H4RDSTYLE

You're coming at this from a different point of view, K10w3. From a relationships point of view, which I think is what you mean, of course time is more important than money. As so many failed parent/child relationships prove, you can shower someone with money all their lives and they will still resent you if you didn't actually spend *time* with them.

But from a business point of view, Brad is 100% right. The guy who invested only his time/hard work will lose nothing but time if the business fails, but the guy who remortgaged his house to invest in the business will, together with his family, be left homeless. So the actual value comes not so much from who is putting in the most effort, but on who loses the most if the business fails.

And that's a very good point. Never thought about it like that, but it does make sense. So what you mean is that giving people more than you initially agreed with, eventually gives them a sense of 'entitlement' instead of 'gratefulness'?

I don't think its a bad thing to 'overcompensate' an employee providing certain conditions are met. If the job given is done, lets say, ahead of time and the quality is still there. If said employee knows the extra is out of gratitude thus avoiding the sense of entitlement. But here's the rub ... the employee might consider it as such and think that he/she 'is' entitled to the extra each time they go the extra mile. Should it be that way?   

"5 Cold Realities" may be common sense, but (as Charlie "Bird" Parker once said) "If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn."

When you lose capital, all you have left is sweat equity. And if you don't invest the sweat, capital alone won't get you there. So I don't see how one trumps the other or makes one "worth more". Some people can invest $1500 and turn a business into a multi-million concern. Others can risk everything and lose it due to changes in the market or destabilizing world events (aside from "mismanagement").  The "cold reality" is that there's a measure of luck in the equation, no matter the capital or sweat. The only counter-measure to that IMHO, is persistence.

#3 has nuance too. There's times when you have to rely on "gut instinct" and I'm firmly in the Richard Branson camp of "Screw Business As Usual". While I agree that logic should always be applied and check emotion, I can't agree it's an absolute. Given the context for that pemise as stated, it's a starting point.

I've only approached #4 from a "service provider" prospective, and feel it's crucial to have/get genuine appreciation and respect for quality. That doesn't have to translate into a bonus everytime, but neither does it mean it should be taken for granted. Every job has value, from the trash collector to the committed manager. With rationalizations for the opposite POV on the rise (once again), not to mention things like lead being part of maximizing profit, there can't be too much nurturing.

As the motto of a certain company stated "Do The Right Thing."

Thanks for the discussion.

I'm not coming at it from a relationship point of view, but I guess I'm not coming from it as a business owner point of view either.  I'm coming at it from the angle of a worker -- my income represents my time; it's time I sold someone else, it represents a piece of my life that is gone, a period of time that I wasn't free, that I wasn't spending doing what I wanted to do.  It's sands in the bottom of the hourglass of my life that I will never get back, and it's why I get really angry at my spouse when he says stupid things like "why are you getting so upset? It's just money!" 

sorry, wrong thread

Too true.  Though I would say money's only real use is to buy more time.  Time is the only finite resource we have, and the great equalizer in this world.  With enough money, you're free to use your time however you want.  Ironically many of the wealthiest people in the world find that what they want to spend their time on, when they are free to spend it on anything, is trying to amass more money....

#4 is what intrigues me the most.  Compensation?   Okay, so, have a clear compensation system.  I get that.  What I don't get is not to pay compensation to build good will.  You mean don't pay bonuses?   What is the incentive for giving my heart and soul to my job?   If we agree on a clear plan that "you are paid X to do Y"-- then I will do Y, for 40 hours a week, then I go home.  But if we say, "here is a stretch goal.  Attain this, you get a bonus, because you make this impact to our bottom line"...now you've caught my interest.   I had this conversation with my boss before.  Instead he came back and said, "here is a stretch goal.  Attain this, you get to keep your job."   I don't work for him anymore.

Someone PMed me about piles of money? 

I've learned two over the past three years:

1. Work at least as hard as your hardest working employee. Just because you have people working for you, doesn't mean you can relax.

2. Learn the difference between true criticism/flaws and negativity/fear.