Making everyone rich except yourself …
Running a business has taught me a lot of things. Some of the things I have learned is that if you are not careful, you make everyone around you rich except yourself.
Why do I say that? When you are a business owner, one of the things you do regularly is ensure everyone is paid at the end of the month, except yourself of course, especially when there are cash flow and liquidity challenges.
Every month end, I would ensure everyone gets their payment and I would either wait or use my earnings from other sources to sustain myself. This went on for a long time until I told myself that there was no point in running a business if I couldn’t earn a salary or get a director’s fee at the end of the month.
Therefore, I decided to be drawing a salary. No matter how tough things got, I was still included on the payroll. Therefore, when setting targets, we ensured targets were met and everyone got paid at the month's end. I remember the first time I got a paycheck from the business I founded. I felt so good. This one hit differently and it made me work harder and SMART.
