Car Count Daily

I want to talk about a conversation that I have been having over and over with shop owners lately. Now, whether you know it or not, I actually talk with shop owners on the phone to see how or if we can help them. I’ve been doing dozens and dozens of calls over the past month or so. I seem to be running into the same comments, or the same sort of comments over and over. Because look, you started your business because you wanted to have a really comfortable life or maybe a really exceptional life. You want to make some good money, be able to do what you want, when you want, with whoever you want, and have the proper amount of money to go do it, so you are not constantly worried about money, right?

I sure hope that’s the reason why you’re in business. But, first and foremost, you’re in business to make money. You’re not running a charity here. If your business isn’t making money, guess what? Your family suffers, and if your family is suffering, you better believe your employees and their families are suffering, too, because you’re not making the amount of money that you should with your business. But I’m consistently finding with shop owners, and this is kind of disconcerting to me, because I’m seeing more and more shop owners telling me that, “Well, it’s okay.” The shop owner I talked with yesterday said, “Well, I don’t want to be greedy, I just want to make enough to survive.” And I almost dropped the phone.

Making money in your business is not being greedy. You’re there, you’re performing a service, you’re busting your butt, you’re working more hours than a normal person, you’re working harder than a normal person, and you deserve to have a reward higher than a normal person. So you’re working your butt off, why not enjoy the rewards of it? And don’t look at it as being greedy, look at is as being, I don’t know, fiscally responsible to your family. Because you’re the one that’s probably missed all your kids’ soccer games, and baseball games, and football games, and track, and all that. You missed your kids growing up, chances are, if you’re like most shop owners.

If you’re like most shop owners you’re probably my age or older. So you’re starting to have grandkids and you want to spend time with them, but no, you’re busting your butt at the shop all the time, but you don’t want to be greedy. No, you don’t want to make the money. Yes, you do. Or, you should. You deserve to get paid for all the work, time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears, the sleepless nights that you have. You deserve to make money. Making money is not being greedy. Making a lot of money is not being greedy.

I look at money as like a magnifier. If you’re a greedy son of a bitch when you don’t have any money, when you make more money it’s just going to amplify that and you’re going to be a really greedy asshole. We’re not greedy here. If you’re a good person, you’re going to be an even better person when you have that magnifier of money over the top of it. If you’re somebody that gives money away to charities and churches when you’re poor, when you add that magnifier of money on top of it, you become more philanthropic. You give away more money. It is what it is.

Don’t look at money as being greedy, earn your fair share, do with it what you want, but understand if you’re not making money your business isn’t going to be doing well and all the people that are involved in your business, including your own family, your employees and their families are the ones that are going to suffer for it, okay? Go out there, you’re busting your butt already, get rewarded for it.