So, there are several things going on in my life these days, this blog again being one of them. It feels quite good to be writing about my own thoughts, like I’m arranging ideas and structuring my future actions in my mind. I remember once telling a good friend of mine at the time, as he was going through a rough spot in his life; “Start by tidying up your house – a clean and tidy life starts at home.” I think maybe I was right, and this is probably one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever given – even though I can be so bad at following that myself!
So the last week I’ve been busy cleaning and tidying, some of my actions clearly visible to others, some of them not. Some of it involved spending some money, some of it involves earning some money. And to be honest, I think most of it combined almost guarantees my personal finances will improve, and a lot of it also directly influences the potential of the store.
As a part of this, I’ve had to make one of the toughest decisions of my business career. Yesterday I informed one of my employees how I would need to severely cut back on the amount of hours he’s been working at the store, thus reducing his monthly salary by more than 50%. I know this is all part of business and all, and this stuff happens every day – it still does not mean I have to like it one bit. I’ve known for a long time I would need to have this conversation, and I’ve tried to initiate it several times but failed – and now, finally, it is done. I’m really looking forward to the day I can bring him the good news that we’ve pulled through the toughest spot, and he’s back in full action – ‘cuz he damn well deserves it.
As I’m going over this whole thing in my mind, I realize that I’ve been blessed by the fact that I haven’t had to fire or reduce hours for anyone before – I’ve always had some kind of backup. Now though, I guess this has made me a more valuable mid-level executive in the eyes of “the corporation” (whatever that is), and that as an executive you need to be able to do this, but in the deciding process and following it through. To my employees though, I think the way I’ve been fighting for them, trying to provide a stable work environment and a steady pay check, is also worth a lot – hopefully a lot more than the ability to reduce costs. In a perfect world, I could hire the people I need and we could all happily go to work and serve our customers, and there would be nothing more to it. I guess I’ll need to upscale a little to get there.