We talked before about the people who can’t seem to get themselves paid from their business… now, we are going to talk about the people who seem to get paid to much based on their business… It is another one of those situations that almost doesn’t seem to be real until you see it happening…
Okay, so as a young company grows, it begins to gain leverage especially the more potential in success that it is showing. I was working contract labor for a company that was incredible, and they were on the verge of serious growth. They had assets and contracts for new projects which gave them more leverage for more growth. The idea is that with more contracts signed and guaranteed, although they have yet to be paid out or paid in full, you can leverage those contracts for bank draws which gets you more cash in hand now to handle all the things you need to handle to get said projects done. They had multiple different kinds of projects that were in the works which is great because this company was growing it was an amazing thing to see happen. Their expenses kept them in the red so frequently, but the president and vice president of the company were making huge salaries. Now if they would’ve decided to take smaller salaries to keep their business out of the red or at least closer to the black, this would’ve been very beneficial to the growth of their company. Their company would have also looked much better on paper than it did at times. As mentioned before, this company was growing and looking great but what little people knew was they lived in the red far more often than they needed to.
I worked contract labor with another small company that was not nearly on the same level but frequently had problems having his company live in the red because he just wouldn’t manage it properly. The owner of this company was bringing in lots of revenue, but he was one of those owners that didn’t set a specific salary for himself, rather he just took what he needed from the business account whenever he wanted to. When business expenses came up, he would prioritize what he felt was important. He would frequently take care of personal stuff or family stuff right out of this account as well… when a business expense bill came due, and he felt it was excessive, he would not dispute it; he would just disregard it and not pay it. He always said he would find another way to get the job done… open a new line of credit elsewhere or something. His business destroyed his credit even though he was making more than enough to rebuild and perfect his credit. He just allowed things to go unpaid and fall behind. It was sad to watch as I knew the man had so much potential; he would be owning his business if he just ran it better.
Then you take a man like Steve Jobs who is widely accepted as one of the great success stories of our time… no one disputes that. For those who do not know, Steve Jobs was voted out of Apple by his board members. When he was later requested to come back to the company as CEO, he accepted a mere $1 a year salary along with shares in the stock of the company. He believed in his company so much that he knew he would make more money by taking stock instead of cash and he wanted everyone else in the company to see how much he believed and cared about this company. He was not wrong either. When he came back to the company, shares were $3.19 and grew to $365 when he retired fifteen years later. His company was obviously more developed already as it was be traded on the US stock market… but the principle still stands. He was going to put into his company and fight for his company. He wasn’t going to take what he had yet to earn.
The idea is that you should not be taking from your company what it doesn’t have. You do need to get paid… That is a reasonable thing. But you must be smart about things. Especially when your company is still a young and growing…. No matter how successful it is right off the jump, be mindful that there is a balance to how you should be doing things and managing the financials. You do not have the right to take from your company… You have to earn the right to get paid… so get there… get that money flowing in. Once you have put in the work and your company is rollin’ and growin’, then it is time to get yours. It will happen in time if you put in the work. Don’t be over eager or greedy… there will be time to get paid.
beingcoreybayless 