Businesses should not grow, simply for the sake of growing. Healthy businesses grow for many reasons; to take advantage of economies of scale, to eliminate competition, etc. There needs to be a reason, and a method. The Company grows for the sake of growing.
Two years ago The Company bought another thriving little newspaper group (this lovely and successful group is where I came from). Over these 2 years nothing has been integrated, NOTHING! We are still in separate offices, we still pay 2 salaries for positions such as: the GM, the Production Manager, the Editor, the Sports Editor, the Advertising Manager, the Classified Manger, etc. We still even have separate accounts at Office Depot! And guess what, the increased overhead is killing us. We cannot even afford to maintain the computer networks (take note, we do not have an IT guy, let alone a duplicate).
Why double the size of your business if you do not plan to take advantage of those wonderful perks offered to larger businesses, like cheaper cost per square foot rent? That’s right, I forgot, because we grow for the sake of growing.
Because this new growth is threatening to swamp the ship more and more things are being cut, like coffee, and the paper routes of 400 kids who use the money to buy penny candy. I actually had a stern talking to about making a fresh pot of coffee the other day, because we need to keep office costs to a minimum. I know it is wasteful, but I just could not stand the idea of drinking day old, re-heated, cheap ass, oxidized coffee (I am actually grimacing as I write this). Coffee really is the only thing that keeps me happy at the office, and they are trying to take that away!
We cannot afford to spend $0.20 per day of fresh coffee, but we can afford to offer free ads to clients so they can put their Pot of Money on back of a bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment