Feb 23 2009
Stupid Business Practices
In a small Midwestern town, a sixteen-year old boy took on his first job working in a small video shop. After several months working there, he finally figured out that the boss had been improperly paying him for the hours he had worked. After getting nowhere with the boss, the boy went for the top gun: his mother. She, in turn, went in and tried to talk some sense into the old man. The boss, unimpressed, fired the boy, and hoped the mother would fade a way. She fought back by putting a letter to the editor in the newspaper. In the end, no justice was served. The boy didn’t get the money due, the mother decided to let it go or have a heart attack, and the dishonest business owner got away with it.
Right or wrong, business owners are not all born to be honest. All too often employees find this out the toughest way through lost wages or abusive hours. Recessions can sometimes rid this world of such business owners. But all too often their dishonesty goes unchecked.
There are many stupid business practices, but here are few of the most pervasive.
1. Poor customer service. Fortunately most people vote with their feet and these kinds of businesses fail even before a recession.
2. Abuse of wages and hours. I am amazed at the number of bosses that simply pay no attention to overtime, and the number of employees that overlook it as well. Bosses that violate overtime laws run the risk of huge fines from the labor department when employees report the problem. Why do bosses get away with this? Mostly because there is not punch clock system, resulting in complaints that are unable to be proven. Employees need to be able to show without question the hours that they worked.
3. Poor employee safety. Besides being morally obligated to provide for their workers safety, employers suffer through higher insurance premiums for too many accidents. Do you think this would result in smart bosses putting in safety programs? It doesn’t happen nearly enough. Foolish business owners see only lost time in production or simply choose to ignore risks in the workplace. The results are avoidable accidents and higher insurance for everyone.
4. Cheating the I.R.S. Another amazing thing about businesspeople is how many feel it completely justifiable to cheat on their taxes. There are a remarkable number of legitimate write offs for businesspeople, but all too often business owners play Russian Roulette with their futures by deducting silly expenditures that would never be legitimate expenses.
5. Cheat their customers: There are a certain number of people who honestly have never heard that a satisfied customer will tell a couple of other people, but an unhappy customer will tell twenty other people. To that end, some business owners will figure out ways to rip off their customers and sleep just fine at night. There is no reasonable explanation of these kind of risk takers.
6. Have no understanding of their bookkeeping: Some business owners manage to stay afloat because their spouse brings in a good living. Many times these people have no clue about how their business is doing, except that their checkbook looks like it has money in it, so things in the shop must be doing fine. There are store owners that have no idea about their inventory, no concept of reading their books, or clue about their break even. They fly by the seat of their pants, and get away with it only because they have help supporting the business. This is an easy thing to remedy, because meeting with a Small Business Development Center counselor can help you learn to control your budget, not let it control you.
Businesses are successfully run every year, so even though it is difficult, it is not impossible. The rewards of fixing these above mistakes will lead to the kind of success any business really wants.
