My clients pay me good money to help them increase their profits. And, I charge them huge fees so I can increase my profits. But, because everybody who reads this column is a close personal friend of mine, I’m going to pass on this advice to you FREE.If you want to make more money you can either increase prices, or cut costs. I’ve always been in favor of increasing prices—especially it’s done in conjunction with your competitors—but that’s no longer and option as the Australian airline Qantas found out when it was fined $61 million by the American regulators.
That forces you to take option two, cutting your costs. Since most of your costs are fixed: rent, electricity, raw materials, that leaves your workers’ salaries as the best place to start. But you needn’t worry, as your workers will take the news in their stride. If you follow this strategy, Fortune magazine may even name your company one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.
I’m of course referring to Stanley Associates, a company with more than 2300 employees in 150 locations, which recently won a contract to take over opening the mail and the initial processing of citizenship and other applications at the US Agency of Citizenship and Immigration Services centers in St. Albans and Laguna Niguel, California, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Unfortunately, the company bid too low, and realized that if it was going to make a decent profit, it would have to cut costs. So, Stanley Vice President, Eric Wolking, informed 181 of its new workers that he was going to cut their pay by up to $7 per hour. While the workers may not have been thrilled with this news, I’m sure they took it in their stride as they now work for one of the best companies in America, instead of a boring government department.
Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness, is a person I’d really like to meet as we share many of the same views. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, he states that illegal tomato pickers in Florida are destroying the American way of life by forcing up food prices.
Schlosser points out that tomato growers were holding their own until 2005 when pickers were given their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s. It seems that Taco Bell—in an attempt to end a consumer boycott—agreed to pay farmers an extra penny for every pound of tomatoes they purchased—if the money was passed on to the workers. The farmers said yes and McDonald’s agreed to a similar increase last year. But, Burger King, seeing the effect an extra $250,000 in annual costs would have on its $2 billion of revenues, decided to “have it their way” and refused to give the workers the extra penny.
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange backed the company. Reggie Brown, the group’s executive vice president, said it was “un-American” to pay illegal workers any more money than they were already receiving—and threatened to fine growers who accepted the extra money $100,000. I’m happy to see that we have two Americans—Schlosser and Brown—who are united in their stand against illegal immigrants.
To stay one step in front of the competition, check out my latest book: Dr. Young’s Guide to Demotivating Employees at Dolyttle & Seamore.
While I don’t really have any interest in hearing what you have to say about anything, if you have a burning desire to get something off your chest, email me: dryoung@demotivationist.com.
