Businesses aren’t built for you
I’m about to rant.
It’s only been about 18 months since I started to get really interested in business. How companies work, cashflow, expenditure, keeping employees happy, hiring the right ones. All that stuff and more.
And while I’ve done my best to learn as much as possible, I’m still super inexperienced. I love the idea of one day running my own business, but right now I haven’t much of a clue how to do that.
One thing is do know, though, is that for-profit businesses are built to make money.
The clue is in the name: for-profit. These organisations only exist because someone identified a gap in the market and realised there was money to be made.
Which is why I’m baffled every time I hear people complain about businesses dropping a product or a service from their offerings that is losing money.
But I use it every day! Do they not care about me?
Yes, but the bottom line matters more.
I’ve spent money on this service. Why can’t they just keep updating it?
Because not enough people are using the service and it’s unnecessarily costing the company a lot of money.
This business should stop thinking about money first and aim to keep me and others happy!
God dammit.
Business is money. It’s horrible and something not a lot of people want to admit, but that’s all it is.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it when a company makes me feel appreciated. It could be a genuine thank you. It could be a small extra on top of what I’ve paid for. It could even be that they simply go above and beyond what I expected.
But if a for-profit business turned around to me and said:
“Hey, sorry Elliot, this service you’re paying for just isn’t making money. We need to kill it.”
I’d be all:
“Oh hey Company X, I’m sorry
- your marketing sucked
- simply not enough people needed the service
- your service isn’t as good as others
but thank you for communicating and being straight with me.”
And that’s it. There should be no anger or animosity towards the company and its staff. There’s no need for a complete refusal to ever give that business money in the future. And no petitions demanding that the service stay should be created.
Money is money is money.
If a business isn’t earning enough of it, it tanks.
If a business identifies where it could save money, those cutbacks become priority.
In a seamless and ideal world, money would be an afterthought to happiness. But that’s not how this world works.
Money comes first, and it always will.
Sucks, right?
