THE SECRET BEHIND THE LATTE EFFECT…
In case you didn’t know this financial planners and especially accountants are the bane of every thriving business. Accountants have destroyed more businesses than they have ever saved but of course they would never tell you that. Just the same it happens all the time. They would all be out jobs if they told you, not to mention they couldn’t tell you anyway because they could never see it themselves.
You see accountants tell you all the ways you can save money and because you think they know how to run a business you believe them. They tell you things like your spending too much on customer service, or that thing you are stocking is not selling enough, or you need to spend less on this or that to save money. Of course when you follow their advice you quickly find out is was a good thing since with sales all of a sudden down the money you saved was really needed. What you don’t realize is that sales have slowed down, leveled off or declined because you cut down on these vital things that accountants say are bad.
Accountants have no clue to what it takes to run a business and make people happy. They do know how to add up numbers and prepare you for the God Almighty tax man but aside from that they know little else. Why else do you think they are accountants and not running their own businesses? Since they are versed at dealing with the one thing you fear the most, the tax man, you give them more status and power than they deserve. The next thing, and before long, they are running your business down the drain. All at the same time they are always amazing you at how much money they are saving you at the end of each year. If your sales have slowed down, leveled off or declined you would never blame them. How could you after knowing how much money they saved you. The numbers they fire off to you are always amazing and make you feel you could just get rich off the money you saved! The truth is most of those savings only work on their spread sheets but in the real world the result is far different.
What you end up getting are frustrated customers because you do not have some part in stock simply because it doesn’t sell that often. With business it is vital to realize that the Customer is God of your business. Accountants never see the customer since they are often hiding in little cages behind computer screens dancing with their “inventory management programs” They only see numbers on their screens and from their perspective in their cages never get to see where ever real successful business succeeds.
Have you ever noticed that big box stores have five thousand items in stock of one thing everyone needs but not one of the items you need once in a blue moon. Where do you go when they don’t have it… some small mom and pop hardware store that cannot afford the destructive forces of accountants and their inventory management software.
Now it is really important to realize here that I am not saying accountants are bad at all though it may sound that way. I am just saying that everyone has their place in the scheme of things. If you tried to get a CEO of some company to take over the cleaning department it would not be long before things fell apart or vice-versa. Sure there are likely movies where the head of sanitation takes over the company and makes it bigger than ever but in the real world rarely if ever the case. You have to keep everyone in their proper place.
For example let’s take financial planners. They rant and rave all the time about the latte effect. If you just quit that one latte a day and invested it in some scheme they have figure out for you that in ten or fifty years you would be a millionaire. Again this all sounds good on paper. After all one five dollar latte a day times twenty is one hundred a month times twelve is twelve hundred dollars a year!! Invest that in eighttrack.com and thirty years later viola its champagne and caviar…
What they fail to observe is that by drinking one latte a day and perking up your energy so that you feel happy, motivated and driven could be all it takes to close one last big contract worth thousands or millions or whatever. Just close one big contract or finish one job two days earlier or whatever and the boss could give you a five thousand dollar annual raise! How do those twelve hundred dollars you saved look now? If you are an artist like me just finishing one extra piece of artwork could be worth thousands per month right there. Plus we have not even gotten into the quality of life issue of being able to hang for a few minutes in the café eyeing the scenery! Maybe that is where you meet your future wife! If so big deal you save $1200. The truth is if the financial planner can get you along with 5 or a hundred other people to follow his plan then he will be able to live off the commissions he makes. The more he signs up to his plan the less he has to worry about giving up his daily latte!!
Anyway I have often said “when we make sense we often make cents” Of course don’t pay any attention to me since I have spent most of my life trying to make sense!! Just the same though don’t let anyone kill your business or deprive you of your Latte!!
And remember most important of all it takes a visionary to build and run a successful business and only a couple of accountants to run it down the drain.
I think it was Stuart Wilde who wrote and neat story in his book The Trick to Having Money or whatever it was called. He said next time you are in an airplane look on the floor under the seat in front of you. You will see a couple tiny little screws there holding the seat in place. Those tiny little screws is the same ones holding your seat in place. It was accountants who figured out they could save some money by using smaller screws. Besides if the plane crashes what difference does it make if you are still in pieces anyway!
roy/feb/28/08