Bryan Dear’s Blog

Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property. Milton Friedman, 1912 – 2006

Do you count your savings when you spend your money -”Wow, look how much money I’m saving?” - or do you count the money you spent?

Do you count your winnings without deducting the amount you invested whether it’s poker, horseracing, or playing the lottery, or do you deduct what you have put in the pot before you announce your winnings?

Do you make investments because the tax savings look so attractive or because the return on your investment is attractive?

Are you familiar with the expression, “If it’s too good to be true, then most likely it is.”?

The  HIRE Act recently passed by our federal government encourages employers to hire people who have been unemployed for the previous sixty days. By doing so, the employer saves 6.2% on the wage amount for the remainder of the year.  There’s an additional tax credit if the employee stays with the employer for 52 weeks.

Would you hire an employee just because of this savings?

I doubt it. It’s nice to have. I’m not going to turn it down (although the government gives you the option to turn it down).  I sure wouldn’t start looking for new employees who fit the profile just because there’s a slight discount for the remainder of the year.

The world is constantly telling us the time is now to buy and save. I think I’ll save my money until I’m ready to spend. If I can negotiate a deal – great. If there’s a sale at that time – great. But I’m not going to do something until I’m ready – at least that’s my goal.

Keep working. Keep thinking. Save – by not spending.

Cheers,

Bryan Dear

www.payrolldept.biz

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent. Michel de Montaigne, 1533 – 1592

Within our culture, growth is usually considered a good thing – more jobs, more taxes are collected for governments, people buy more and businesses enjoy higher profits. There are also the unpleasant side effects such as busier roads, higher impacts on schools, higher impacts on our environment and through growth, our community may become unrecognizable over time.

That’s one way to look at growth when it comes to an organization. But gee whiz. Growth refers to quite a bit more than that. As an individual, my growth, as measured by me, refers to my bodily health and my mental health. Do I have deeper friendships? Am I working on acquiring another skill (cooking, language, quilting)? Am I giving more of myself to whatever task I am doing? Am I exercising? In short, am I a better person, again as measured by me, than I was before?

Why can’t an organization’s growth follow a similar definition? Is a flat revenue and a flat production cycle bad? Is declining revenue and declining production bad? Maybe – our culuture would ususally answer yes and our stock market would put a big exclamation point behind that yes. But there are different measurements.

Did we spend more time with our customers? Did we figure how to add services without increasing costs? Did our employees think more highly of us? Did our clients think more highly of us? Did we forge stronger vendor relationships? Is the business a more enjoyable place to walk into? 

You get the drift. What measurements of growth besides the traditional one of dollar and volume  can be used?

There’s a strong correlation between the organization growing through a different set of initiatives than a focus on sales and production. Profit that sustains the business is necessary to long-term health. However, many times the growth of other aspects of the business have more to do with that profit than the traditional measurements.

Grow inwardly and prosper,

Bryan Dear

www.payrolldept.biz