Now Mike, you can’t be asking big complicated questions to the Nanny State! They know what’s best for you and you let them take the needed funds out of your account. Wait until you see Mrs. Clinton’s next campaign poster. She’s wearing a nurses outfit with a Nurse Cratchet grimace. In bold letters are the words “It’s time for your pill, vote for Hill.”
Leadership and the Numbers
By Mike Maddaloni on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 07:52 AM with 3 comments
After a session of entering receipts and generating invoices in QuickBooks, I will always run financial reports to see how Dunkirk Systems is doing. These reports not only tell me what my revenues are, but the price of doing business in the cost of goods sold and expenses incurred along the way. Though I am very close to every financial decision made, it is good to see it all together in a big-picture format.
Like any good small businessperson, I am never satisfied with the numbers. But what can I do about it? Are my products and services being offered at a fair price that the market can bear? Can I charge more? Should I charge more? And why are my costs what they are? Could I get a better price on services? And who would be offering those services? Then there is the all important question – where am I paying more for a particular service or for a service overall that I do not need, both in its cost and in the people involved in delivering it?
The answers to these questions and others pertaining to pricing and costs do not necessarily come with quick answers, and require thoughtful analysis and sometimes hard decision-making. But I did not start a small business to make things easy, did I? This part of leading a small business is one many people do not realize is required as they venture into it. It is also one they do not like to perform and may struggle with. But as the leader of a small business it is one they must do and do thoroughly. Focusing on solely revenues and not expenses or vice versa can have a negative effect on the vitality of the small business.
Now, if you substitute “small business” for any other entity type, does the above still make sense? What if I swapped in “corporation” or “non-profit organization” or even “government agency” would what I said still apply?
My goal with The Hot Iron is to write about issues impacting small business and technology and in the past have opted against delving into politics. However I do not live in a bubble, rather in the City of Chicago in Cook County in the state of Illinois in the US. Proposed tax increases by the city, county and state could increase varying taxes and fees to some of the highest levels in the US. Where the intent is to fund services, it could make existence in this great city unbearable.
So I ask the leaders of where I live – please swap your title and governing body in the above text and provide detailed answers to the questions. This leadership is the minimum requirement you need to provide to your constituents, many of whom are very accustomed to doing this for themselves.
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Comment by When I moved here from MN about 5 years ago, we were literally packing our truck while listening to the MN Democratic Party turn Sen Paul Wellstone’s funeral into a Anit-Republican Rally. I remember saying to my wife, well at least in Chicago we know that the government is corrupt…they don’t try to hide it there.
But over the past 5 years that has become of little solace. We see how corrupt the city, county, and state governments are everyday. From almost monthly patronage scandals for the city, hiding an pretty much dead county president’s body so the family can retain the power as pass it on to their son Erkel, or the Blagoavich/Madigan “my unit is bigger then yours” pissing match. It is disgusting and now to pour salt in the wounds they all want to raise taxes and take more of my hard earned money! Oh wait, Erkel (AKA Todd Stroger) has been so kind to say that he it taking too much on purpose now and will do us the kind favor of MAYBE returning some back to us if he doesn’t need it.
I hate to say it but as I grow older I am starting to agree more and more with anarchists. I guessing being a Libertarian I am already half way there. But now I have a newborn daughter and I now have to question what I am going to teach my daughter about government, or for that big monopolist corporations that can piss on their own customers also because we have no where else to go (COMCAST). Is all government and are all big corporations inherently bad and corrupt? I would tell her to ask a respected community authority like a police officer, her I am affrad she will either get blackmailed or assaulted by the CPD.
There is no accountability is big powerful organizations such as government and monopolies and that is the major issue in my opinion. I actually investigated this while dealing with my MONTHLY Comcast problem (I actually schedule time in my planner for dealing with Comcast issues now). The hoops one has to jump through to enforce any type of accountability is ridiculous and so they rely on customer and voter apathy to allow them to continue business as usual. On the other hand, we as small business owners must hold ourselves uber-accountable for every part of our business otherwise there is a good chance we won’t be here tomorrow.
I wish there were a lot of institutions and companies that had to operated on that same model. I could actually teach my daughter something positive about the ‘so-called’ great american institution of governement and large market capitalism.
On my real estate news and resource website, http://www.therobboreport.com, I featured an underground missle base that was for sale in the state of Washington a couple of weeks ago. I joke with my wife about moving there when we are dealing with our societal frustrations…that joke become used more and more these days.
Viva Mona Shaw!!! (Google It!)
Comment by Why is Mama Clinton getting large donations from large corporations? Because she is going to take health care off their hands. The only people who pay are the middle class and small to mid sized businesses. A large but latent group. Let’s hope the web can mobilize opposition to the coming Stalin based regime.
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