Some interesting thoughts from Dave at Financial Insight
Work hard and Prosper.
Have fun and remember to be happy.
Quote of the day "There is a word for businesses that do not pass all their expenses including their taxes on to their customers. The word is bankrupt."
Women may be From Venus and Men may be From Mars, But Entrepreneurs Live on Pluto
February 28, 2016
And let me tell you, it can be mighty cold out there. More than once, well a lot more than once I have found myself explaining or trying to explain this to Government officials. It is easy for anyone who is gainfully employed and especially easy for government employees to miss how different the world is for most self-employed, especially those in their earlier years. For an employee, it is relatively straight forward. They go to work for a certain number of hours and they get paid for their work, and then there are the benefits like paid vacations. But the bottom line is that they know what they are making and when they will be paid. While it may not always be easy, planning to pay bills and taxes etc. is relatively straight forward here on Earth, or Mars or Venus for that matter. But out on Pluto it is a different story.
For the small business person, they are always at work, or at least work is always with them, but that is the easy part. First, they have to fork out money before any work is started. Then they have to find work or sales, pay any related cost, continue to pay for the cost of doing business, regardless if there is work or sales, then bill and finally hope to be paid, which can be a crap shoot especially as to timing. Add to that the myriad of growing and changing Government rules and regulations plus the often unrealistic expectations of government employees and there you have it, life on Pluto.
These circumstances make life anything but simple. Will I make money this year, how much, after all the putting money into the business and drawing out when I can, will I owe it money or the other way around, can I take a salary or a dividend? All of this has to be sorted out, usually after the fact, not to mention that they keep changing the rules. Oh, and let's not forget that we have to run the business, take care of employees and take care of customers too. Running the business should not be an afterthought. Then there are those government officials who think that they are the centre of the universe.
Obviously not all but a large number seem to think that our life should be simple, like theirs is. Well it is not. Then there are the ones, and there are a lot of them, who seem to think that their objective is to find ways to make the business person offside of the rules rather than find ways to work with the business person to help them and make it easier for them to follow the rules. I would have thought that the latter should be the objective.
Government officials at all levels need to understand these realities. When making the rules, they need to think about what the proper objective is, understand the realities that the business person lives with and try to design the rules accordingly. When applying them, they also need to understand the realities of business and work with the businesses in a positive manner to help businesses to follow and stay on side of the rules. While I have seen good examples of this, it often seems to be the exception not the rule. It should be the rule.
One final thought, business people, especially small business people are not the enemy. They are hardworking, often with a high degree of passion for what they are doing; they want to follow the rules and to create jobs, wealth and opportunities that will benefit us all. They are a pillar of our society and deserve respect. They also live on Pluto and it behooves us all, especially the government to do whatever possible to bring them closer to home, because, after all, it is mighty cold out there.
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