June 29th, 2010 by Robin Miller Towing
Most of us grew up being told the Golden Rule was “treat others as you want to be treated”…or some old English version like “do unto others and you would be done by.” There is another very important Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules!”
Most of us grew up being told the Golden Rule was “treat others as you want to be treated”…or some old English version like “do unto others and you would be done by.” There is another very important Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules!”
At a recent college orientation I sat through (my second), we were told that the affairs of our son were private and that we were not able to see his grades unless he gave the college permission. I then educated my son on the Golden Rule…the application here is that if I don’t have complete access to his grades, medical information, behavior and entire college experience, his tuition bill would have to be paid by him! I make the rules, not the federal government!
It is exciting when you land the big customer! The volume and the gearing up! That large customer may be what is called a business concentration – too much revenue coming from one source. If that customer or contract goes away, it may ruin your business. The truth is this worries you so much, you learn to placate this customer way beyond profitability in many cases. Many suppliers have seen this happen with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has forced them to reduce their margins to where they are forced to turn around and force their suppliers into the same predicament. Doing business with Wal-Mart also forces you to take whatever returns they want to give you. Sound familiar? We put up with just about any demand so as not to upset the customer – they have the gold! There is only one cure – make sure you are not controlled by a customer – any customer who represents more than 15% of your business is starting to be a tail wagging the dog!
This is also the reason why “the borrower is a servant to the lender.” Once you start borrowing money to fund working capital you may start relying on it and pretty soon cannot survive without it. The banker can ask just about anything and you have to give it. He can make the rules!
Another type of gold for you in small businesses is your relationships with customers. If you let your employees cultivate those relationships, get lazy and don’t visit with them personally you will grow an employee or two who have the gold! And they will make the rules! At that point you cannot afford to lose them because customers will follow. Your customer base is critical and should be familiar with more than one employee, at the very least.
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Busch completes Bristol triple with Sprint Cup win BRISTOL, Tenn.—Check off a major accomplishment from Kyle Busch’s bucket list.
Busch fended off strong challenges from David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray to win Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway and complete his unprecedented sweep of three NASCAR national touring events at the same track in the same week.
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