Tip: Get the money!
Whether you realize it or not, your job or daily work responsibility is about one thing: helping your company get the money! Regardless of what you do in your company or organization, it is your responsibility to help generate revenues so that your company or business can succeed.
This seems to be a very simple concept, yet I am constantly amazed at how few people really understand that the entire organization must have financial resources in order to exist. Unless you have the power to legally print money, all of your personal efforts and daily commitment to the business with which you are associated must be focused on getting the money. Maybe a couple of examples will help.
A couple of months ago, I was having dinner with a group of people on a Saturday evening in a small town restaurant. The food was served buffet style and was delicious. The closing time for this establishment was 8:00 p.m. At 8:02 I watched a man and his wife pull into the parking lot and come to the door of the restaurant. A young waitress met them at the door and informed them that the restaurant was closed. Although there was plenty of food still sitting out in the buffet area, the couple was turned away because it was two minutes past closing time.
I was amazed at the whole scenario and commented to my friends at the table that this particular restaurant would not survive; it would soon go out of business. They were surprised at my comment and asked why I thought that, since the food was so good. I relayed what I had just witnessed and explained that either the management had not trained their staff very well or the staff had no concept about how they stayed employed. No company can remain open for business very long if you are prohibiting people from giving you their money.
A similar situation happened to a friend of mine. He was in a sandwich shop getting lunch for himself and his children when a man walked in the door and asked, “Who is John?” One of the servers behind the counter said, “I am.” The gentleman explained that he had called and spoken to John thirty minutes prior and placed a carry-out order. He was there to pick the order up. John, the server, apologized that the order was not ready because he had been busy and forgotten. He told the man, “I will make it as soon as I finish filling this order.” With that, the customer turned around and walked out of the sandwich shop. As he got in his car and drove away, my friend overheard the employee saying, “His loss!” Actually, it was not the customer’s loss at all; it was the business’ loss because they did not get the money.
You may wonder what a person could possibly be thinking to chase off business. The truth of the matter is this: it is what they were NOT thinking that is the problem! In both instances the restaurants lost revenue because the employees did not understand the correlation between their own jobs and sales that generate income.
Perhaps you are in business for yourself. Even so, you still must generate income! My father used to say, “Money does not grow on trees.” I have lived long enough to understand that is very true. Unless you have established some way for income to be produced, it will not be long until you are no longer in business. You must devise ways to generate money through the sale of products, goods and/or services.
Now, I realize that there may seem to be some exceptions to this. For example, when I was on a church staff years ago, the Senior Pastor told each staff member that their job was to add one family per month to the church roll. He said that the addition of twelve families each year would supply the necessary funds through their donations needed to pay our salary. He further explained that even though a church operates on the donations and good will of its people, it is still necessary to have income or the doors will eventually shut. A church has bills like any other business or organization. I remember thinking, for the first time in my life, that even a church is a business, to some degree.
As you drive down the streets of your city in the next few days, jot down the names and addresses of ten businesses that you see. Put the piece of paper in a safe place so you can look at it again in the future. Then, over the next ten years, keep your eyes on those businesses. Do you know how many of them will still be in business at the end of ten year’s time? Three! That’s right; statistics show that seven out of ten businesses will fail within a ten year period of time. And, they will all have failed for the same reason; they didn’t get the money!
I know it would be easy for someone to say, “Well, if I got paid more, or if I could make more money, I would work harder!” Yet, the very error in that thinking is if you don’t work hard I can assure you that the money will not be there and you won’t have a job or an opportunity at all. In other words, if the opportunity to do better at your job is not your main focus, I can assure you the money will not be there forever either!
Whether you work for yourself, own a business or work for someone else, keep your eye on the money! As Zig Ziglar says, “Money is not the most important thing in the world, but it is pretty close to oxygen!” If you don’t think it is important, try living without it and see how it works! Stay focused on helping to get the money as one of the main aspects of your business. You and everyone you are associated with in your entire organization will be better off for it. And that’s a fact!
Tip: Get the money!
Have a great week! God bless you!
Dr. Robert A. Rohm
