This phrase has been used often to justify spending someone felt was necessary. Sometimes it is a man speaking to his wife about the new boat or car. Other times it is a woman speaking of her new jewelry or dress. Or it may be the Senator, Congressman, or President trying to convince voters that the government’s expenses are reasonable.
In our society, most people, they do not receive the quality and expectations for which they are paying. My career put me in a position to work with manufacturers for twenty-five years, and I ended my career after working at three manufacturers. I learned that the cost of manufacturing products is often a minor part of the retail price.
This is why we have the mysterious MSRP or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price. Sometimes this is not necessarily suggested by the company that made it. Often a major distributor sets this price. In my first purchasing position, I learned that some major retailers have a minimum markup of 35 to 40 percent. I was required to negotiate special pricing from our vendors to meet these requirements.
When I moved to industrial products, our profit as a distributor was often 75%. I also learned how to calculate profits in a suspiciously obscure way. This is how retailers say they are selling at a percentage of their cost and still make millions of dollars. There are also rebates, hidden discounts, and multiple levels of warehouses that each have a markup.
I have spoken before about stores that open each season with sales of thirty percent discounts, and other retailers only give a ten percent discount on sale prices. My wife and I prefer to purchase products at fifty percent or less of the standard price. We also look for clearance sales and occasionally find 75-90% sales after the season ends.
For fifty years, we have bought things that we could afford. We recently purchased a car that was more expensive than we ever bought before. It was a 2016 Buick SUV with about 60,000 miles. God provided a desire for us that He often has done in previous years. We don’t receive everything we want but often find Him giving us exactly what we desire.
The title of this column is correct, and you receive more than you paid for if you allow Jesus to be Lord of your life. I have followed Him for most of my years and hope that you have found the same to be true in your lives.
I hate that saying. I hear it in movies and TV shows but have never heard it in real life. This phrase is usually proceeded by “It isn’t personal.” But it is personal in business, if you want your commercial relationships to succeed. When your business isn’t personal it will most likely fail.
Relationships must be personal or else they will not work. The opposite of personal is impersonal like immoral is not moral. Let me tell you about the similarities and contrasts in my life for the last seventy years. I should probably say sixty-five because I don’t remember much before 1960.
My parents made raising my brothers and sister and I a job that they participated in. We rarely had a babysitter. My oldest brother could watch us by the time I was eight or nine and our parents allowed that from time to time. This was usually at home, but he also took my other brother and I to the park, school, and the movies.
He and the rest of my family were there for us. They did it because they cared about us and not because someone paid them to do it. I remember going to my uncle Dean’s home for a family event after we had an accident in our car. He saw the damage and proceeded to do what he could to repair it quickly. I thought of that day when we were at his funeral.
My first boss, when I turned sixteen, demonstrated that you can operate a business providing teenagers with work experience and a paycheck while encouraging them to work hard. Our daughters were fortunate enough to have a similar experience in their early years. It was personal and not just business.
I’ve spent over fifty years in ministry and after a few years I determined my ministry was in the workplace. I was to serve the people I encountered in business and just in life for Jesus. I have been a friend, a listening ear, a confidant, and even a pastor to many even though I have never pastored a church.
I have performed weddings, funerals, and answered questions about anything they would ask. I have answered the tough questions. I think the hardest was, “If God created everything, who created God?” The answer, “He has always existed. That is what makes Him God.” His name is “I am that I am.” I knew this question was coming and did not know the answer until it was asked. In that moment, I just answered what came to my mind through Holy Spirit.
If you think the decisions that you make in your business life are not personal, let me ask you to put yourself in place of the one that is affected. If you were laid off, had your pay frozen, or refused a promotion, would you accept this as just being business? Decisions should affect everyone in the company, not just certain people or departments.
On the news last night, the representative from the Better Business Bureau told us that scammers push you to act quickly. This morning, a commercial said the above phrase. There is a relationship between these two concepts. One of my first positions was as marketing director for a small company.
As I have done throughout my career, I read everything I could about my job. We used mailings, including catalogs, to encourage customers to call us. This was in the early days of the eight hundred numbers. We used one, and our owner thought we ought to have the operators offer buy-now deals to callers.
One chance to get a special price, and then the cost went up. I thought this tactic cost us more sales than it gained. Years later, as a sales service specialist, I advocated keeping prices the same until our vendors raised theirs. I believe you lose credibility when you pressure someone to make an immediate decision.
I know how to interpret sales at retailers. Some businesses begin each season with thirty to fifty percent off seasonal prices. At the end of each season, these same stores clearance these products at up to ninety percent off the original retail price.
My experience tells me that this is probably their cost of the merchandise. I say this because most companies would rather sell at cost than donate overstocked items for tax write-offs. Another thing I notice that most shoppers do not is that many businesses have private label items that compete with name brands.
Think about a few other things when you buy these store brands. Someone must manufacture them. It may be different companies, or it can be the same product that is sold by the original brand name with a different label. I’ve been to plants where I saw products with many labels in the warehouses.
My wife worked at a dairy many years ago, and this was the only brand of milk we would buy, even before she started there. She learned that they packaged another brand that came from the same tanks, and the only difference was the brand and the price. We still buy that lower-priced product when we can. Some of the plants I called on told me that there were differences in their product line and the store brands that they manufactured. The only way to determine this is to try the cheaper products and decide if they are as good.
Another fact I have noticed is that some retailers will suspend selling name brands to boost the sales of their own brand. Others simply refuse to sell higher-priced brands and stock only bargain-priced merchandise. We’ve noticed over the years that buying these cheap products can cause problems.
Certain brands of appliances and electronics in the big box stores are all made at overseas plants, and none of these products last as long as domestically made goods. When I was a kid, you did not want a Japanese-made radio, and many Chinese-made products are well known to have more frequent recalls than goods from other countries.
A Latin saying, “Caveat Emptor,” that you should know. The English translation is, “Let the buyer beware.” Become a perceptive consumer and learn as much as you can about how and why things are priced the way they are. It is a good idea to remember that we have a free market economy. That means companies set the prices at what they want. Market demand affects pricing, and we should always look for a sale.
I know. Who wants to watch the ads on TV? You can learn a lot by viewing the advertisements during and between the shows. Did you know that everything you could ever need or want is sold in the media these days? Except for world peace. Advertising is the way the American public finances its broadcast companies.
Newspapers and magazines sold advertisements, and when radio began, they had to develop spots that were totally verbal in nature. I remember in the nineteen sixties listening to the disc jockeys read on air copy for the local ads. As high school speech students, we learned how to be radio announcers and competed in tournaments.
For many years now, one of my classmates has been an anchor on our local NBC affiliate. In school, he was not a speech student. He was working at a local radio station. Our coach invited him to join us at tournaments and compete in radio speaking. He won first place in every competition he was able to enter.
It did not bother me. He was better than all the other competitors. One of my first jobs after college was as marketing director for a small company. We were a direct marketing firm and produced catalogs and flyers, and accepted orders by phone.
Some modern commercials fail to do the one thing I have thought essential. An ad is not successful unless it makes you remember the company’s name. When I see an advertisement repeatedly and cannot remember who ran the spot, I know it failed.
Funny scripts are great, but not all humor is funny to everyone. Some types of comedy just make me think that whoever produced it is stupid. Looking stupid to prospective customers is not a good idea. I always thought it was a good idea to put your best foot forward.
Local commercials about lawyers are a perfect example of what works and what does not. Some attorneys brag about the amount of money they can get for you. Others criticize their competitors and try to denigrate them. This is never a good idea to encourage people who know nothing about you and your business practices to see that you are willing to say things that are hurtful.
Some of my favorite ads just tell me what these businesses can do for me and let me know that they want to take care of anyone who wishes to do business with them. Offend no one and show everyone that you know how to get their business.
There is one commercial that I view regularly today about a perfect gift. It is for a shower head. I’m sorry, that would never be the present my wife would want. This guy must be buying this for his parents. It is a standard comedy schtick to buy your wife something you think she needs. This is against the idea that it is the thought that counts.
Which types of advertising encourage you to buy their products or services? Our economy is a free market, which is supposed to mean that we make our own decisions about what we buy from whom. Few techniques are illegal, but many that are not ethical. When a business fails to present enough information or lies about their products, I just decide not to do business with them.
For almost five years I was with Positronic Industries. Starting as a buyer, before the first anniversary a promotion to purchasing supervisor came through. One of my favorite things about that job was the feeling of the company being a family. Not all the employees felt that way, though.
One of my favorite things was the annual Christmas party. A Hawaiian luau, a western theme, and Silver Dollar City were some of the themes and venues that we were invited to with one special person in our lives. Many of my friends from that time are no longer there.
The reason that I enjoyed working for them was the people that I worked with and for. I would have liked to have retired from that position, but the crash of 2008 meant that many of us were laid off during 2009 and following. I have learned much from that experience.
One thing is not to take anything for granted. I continued my career with two other companies after that time. I retired as a purchasing manager. My ministry continued with each of these companies. Now I hope I can share some other things I’ve learned over my fifty years in business.
Managers and supervisors often believe that their job is to tell those that report to them what they need to do. A better way is to work with the team that you lead and utilize everyone’s talents and expertise to be better at what you are tasked to do. My experience has been that ideas and concepts flow from each employee in varied ways.
I worked for one boss that seemed to be constantly in fear that others would be deemed more suitable for their position. Instead of openly utilizing each person and their abilities, they dismissed valid ideas and changes in procedures. After a few weeks these same concepts were introduced as the manager’s brainchild. By this technic, they claimed these as their own.
I’ve seen this method utilized in church and community situations as well. I believe a lack of self-esteem is at the heart of this behavior. Refusing to give credit where it is due causes some to stop sharing their thoughts. Why contribute when someone else accepts the rewards?
Criticism for the sake of attacking others is one more common occurrence. I’ve seen this from employees to management and in the converse. If we do not feel that we are respected and appreciated, we may attack someone that we see as a threat to us. This does not promote a unified front.
Have you been on the receiving end of this type of abuse? Recognizing why it is taking place can contribute to eliminating this problem. It does not usually help to accuse the offender of this practice. I have left positions on more than one occasion when the owner or manager displayed objectional behaviors or a lack of confidence in me.
I’ve mentioned many negatives and would like to leave you with the qualities of the three best bosses I have had in my life. The owner at Dog ‘N Suds, my first job, recognized the value of each of his employees. If someone had difficulties with certain tasks, they were aided in those areas. He also recognized those who simply did not try to learn, and they were allowed to find other employment.
Tom saw something in me during our interview that made him offer me a sales position in an industry that I had no experience with. After a few months, he promoted me to a store manager, recommended me for a job under another manager, and for my first purchasing position. He saw what I could be and supported my growth.
I accepted another job for a man that I openly told his boss that I would be working to move into his role. I was honest and thought later that my words were ill chosen. I have always looked for improvement in myself and others. When I join a company or organization, I endeavor to work in any capacity that I can.
I enjoy a challenge and rarely shirk added responsibilities. Gary recognized this and trained me to take his place when he had an opportunity to advance. My retiring from the workforce as a purchasing manager was a direct result of his tutelage.
Hard work, dedication to expanding your horizons, and helping others advance is what a supervisor, manager, or owner should do. I could give you more personal examples of others that have exhibited these qualities to me over the years. Take a few moments and think of others that showed you qualities that you have gained in your life.
Christmas is a time of sharing and remembrance. People have made you who you are. Some by their positive actions, while others impacted us to be different from them. I hope that I am one of the former and not the latter. Merry Christmas to you all.
That is an excellent question, isn’t it? Another difficult question is, “Do you cause people to stay or leave?” I have worked with both types of managers and fellow employees. In over forty years in business, I have seen managers chase away employees and customers.
One manager asked why I spent over thirty minutes dealing with one man that she referred to as “some farmer”. When I informed her that he was the maintenance foreman at one of our best customers she turned around and walked away. I saw another man throw a tray of food across the kitchen at a fast-food restaurant where I worked. He was the top manager at the company.
Salesmen that I know often tell their customers to ask for certain inside people that they know will give the customer the best service. Most people will wait for associates that take care of them. Time and again I see employees treat those who pay their salaries with disdain and rudeness.
The adage that “the customer is always right” has been changed to “Who do they think they are?” If you have experienced any of these individuals, I hope that you contact management to make sure that they know what is happening in their businesses.
Sometimes management is a problem. Those in charge of a certain location may not correct employees because they do not care how they treat others. There are times when the best employees at a company leave these poorly managed organizations to join a manager that they have worked with before.
“The Peter Principle” by Laurence J. Peter and Raymund Hull was published in 1969 and made many of us aware of what companies often do. They promote good employees into supervisory or management positions where they eventually will fail. Not everyone who receives a new job at their current company is ineffective. Just a few.
I know employees who were truck drivers or warehousemen and became managers, salesmen, and executives who retired with coworkers praising them. I have also watched as these men and women were terminated because they could not accomplish their new tasks.
I have quit some jobs because of the managers I worked for. I have stayed at companies despite how the bosses treated me. I spent twenty years with a manager who chased off more good employees than I could count. I was the second in command. On several occasions, I was the one who made the decision that someone needed to be fired and was told that I would get to deliver the bad news.
I spent six years as an operations manager. With this company, an operations manager was normally a branch manager who was waiting to be transferred to another position or branch. In my case, they needed someone to run the branch while they dragged their feet and passed me over for the job.
When they gave the position to someone else, I found another job and moved back into purchasing where I was when I joined that company. I retired fifteen years later as a purchasing manager after working my way through three manufacturers that had all been customers for the previous twenty-five years.
Where is your career taking you? Do you enjoy what you do? Do not rule out moving to a new company or a new career. My experience in sales and management made me more effective in purchasing. You may want to change the sides of the desk like I did. Be willing to be flexible. Don’t forget to do something that you enjoy.
My first job was as a fry cook at Dog ‘N Suds drive-in in Springfield, Missouri. It paid $1.25/hour. I loved it. Mr. and Mrs. Costello were the owners. Two of their three sons worked there also. They were still in school. I was a student at Hillcrest High School. This was the summer between my sophomore and junior years. Most of the other employees were or had been students at Central High School. We had a great time.
Within a few months, I was trained to do everything in the small kitchen. I learned to make root beer and cola syrups and place the containers on the drink fountains. I took orders from the speaker and even helped the carhops take orders out. I chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and onions. I closed some evenings and even came over during the school year and missed a class or two my senior year. New employees came and left. Between my freshman and sophomore year in college, I also left.
My Mom worked at the Zenith Television plant. She helped me get on. I had turned eighteen the previous summer and met the age requirement. I loved the pay. I hated the job. I was working on a final line. My job was to hang the tuner and put in three or four screws depending on the model going down the conveyor. If it had not been for my German vocabulary cards, I would have gone insane. It was dull boring work.
My first week I learned that I was not to help the people next to me on the line. There were two screws the person before me had to tighten. They were already installed. Sometimes the set was in front of me, and these bolts had not been torqued down. I was reprimanded when the supervisor caught me doing this after my job was done.
The screws I installed were the same size as the ones the next guy had to put in. He then hung something on them and tightened them down. When I picked up these screws from my bin, I might have two extra and thought it efficient to put them in when I had time. That was also a no-no. This was a union job. Each employee had their own job to do. You could not help each other. That was stupid to me.
At the end of the summer, I quit before I had to join the union and returned to college. I went to work at a restaurant as a busboy and dishwasher. The work was not hard. It also was not challenging. The pay was not as good as the factory, but I was back in classes.
The next fall I commuted thirty miles to college and the second semester I lived in a dormitory. I did not work my junior year and spent the summer working as a summer missionary in Pennsylvania. The pay was not much. I learned a great deal about Christian ministry. When I returned home, my fiancé and I started planning our spring wedding after graduating.
I took a job at a new fast-food chain that was opening. It was the first in the area. By the time I graduated, I was offered a job in the management trainee program. I took it and they moved us. I left because of problems with the management and worked several jobs before we returned to Springfield. I had worked in management at a convenience store, as a door-to-door salesman, and as a marketing director for a small company. These were added to my resume.
Back at home, I took a sales position at a retail pet store. I moved to another store as the manager and then left there to take a job for the wholesale company the owner had that supplied his stores and others in the area. I was the assistant livestock manager because I had read everything I could about the pets. When the purchasing agent left my two previous bosses recommended me for the job. They both told the owner that I could do anything they asked of me.
I have always enjoyed learning something new and taking on challenges. When I left there, I started as a parts distributor for the manufacturing industry. I was hired as the purchasing agent and became office manager, outside sales, inside sales, and ultimately operations manager. After twenty-five years I was passed over for the branch manager’s position.
My district supervisor described me as the best inside guy in the company. When I was operations manager, I worked both the office and in outside sales putting in eighty or more hours a week for the same money. For the first time in three years, we returned to making a profit for the company. I was rewarded by having a former employee re-hired and made my boss.
My next position was as a buyer for one of the companies that was a customer for the last twenty-five years. I was done with sales. I continued to work for manufacturers until I retired as purchasing manager. Each position had good and bad points and good and bad management and employees. There is no perfect job. Life is as good as you want to make it. That includes your work life. Learn all you can to be able to move to the next level. That may not be at your current company.
If your employer offers training through a local college or trade school, take advantage of it. Give the loyalty and hard work that is required for each new position. Do not stay any longer than you must when situations change from good to bad. Do not change jobs because someone has offered you more money.
There is a reason they want you and it may not be as advantageous a position as you think at first. Many coworkers over the years left the company we worked for only to return when they were terminated. I turned down jobs because God told me not to take them. Once I wanted a position so badly that I prayed for it not to be offered to me if it was not where I should be. They did not and I eventually found a better position.
I’ve been laid off, fired, and quit. I’ve lost jobs I liked and ones I hated. Bosses have liked me, hated me, abused me, and taken advantage of me. The one I have always tried to please is Jesus whom I call Lord. I work for Him and He has always had my back. That is the best advice I can give you about liking what you are doing. “Work as unto the Lord.” Colossians 3:23
One of the greatest problems in the business world today is keeping qualified and trained employees. This is not restricted to any industry or type of business. It affects Food service, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, banking, and other service companies. Before proceeding with this discussion, some terms need to be identified and parameters put in place.
An employee is someone who works for you. For the purposes of this discussion, this includes hourly, salaried, commissioned, and contract-type workers. Anyone that receives money from you or your company for products or services. Admit that it costs money to retrain every person that works for you. Even if you will not acknowledge this point, it does.
Qualified workers are those that will come to work, spend the full business day concentrating on your business, not their own, and not complain about everything that a customer or fellow employee does or says. They are qualified to be productive and efficient and not waste time and money.
Training costs money. The fast-food worker who fries the hamburgers has to be trained. It may not take as much time and money as the machinist or the surgeon, but training is still needed. Constantly replacing and training workers is an expense that cannot be eliminated. However, it can often be reduced by keeping good people.
The main criteria for employee wages are, how much are they worth to you? Many times, this is not determined when they approach you about leaving your company. They have an offer from another firm and the pay is more to start than you currently provide them. You should rarely have this kind of conversation with the people that you desire to retain. I only left a company because they did not treat me properly. Those were not financial concerns. Only those that do not operate to your high standards should be looking or considering leaving.
What are some of the questions that need to be asked to determine what an employee is worth to your business? Management or ownership may forget some of these factors.
What is the total cost to the company for this employee? Wage, training, benefits, and other standard costs are often all that are thought of. What about the cost associated with lost time, accidents, sick days, theft, and other intangibles that may be difficult to count?
Can this employee do more than he or she is currently responsible for? When a worker is responsible for little, they may appear not to be worth as much as they could be. What if this person was given the opportunity to be a lead worker, supervisor, or manager? This can often be determined by trying them before promoting them.
My first position as a purchasing agent was on a six-month trial basis. My pay was not increased, and I was told I would receive an increase after the six-month period. I agreed to this. At the end of six months, the owner of the company that had made the agreement with me told me I would be given a pay raise as usual on my employment anniversary. I left there four weeks later for another purchasing agent position. I was with that company for twenty-five years.
This brings up the question, how much would my competition pay to get this person? I later met my old boss and his current Purchasing Agent. I had hired and trained that man.
Does this employee have training or knowledge that would be difficult or impossible to find in others?
Is there a way that raises and increases in benefits can be tied to increasing productivity? This is done in sales and other professions. Can you use it for office employees or other staff that normally do not receive incentive-based wages?
Are there values gained by working at your company that is not shown on the check stub? Is your management staff easy to work for and with? Do your workers think of their supervisors and bosses as friends or just the one that is always on them? Are the communication lines wide open? Can complaints and suggestions be made easily?
Remember the company I stayed at for twenty-five years? I began as PA and was promoted to inside sales, office manager, outside sales, and left as operations manager. My boss, the Branch Manager chased off many good people in the twenty years she held that position. I worked with her for twenty years. What would I have been able to accomplish if I had not been forced to leave after she died?
I managed people, documents, departments, and even branches. Over the decades I was chased away and terminated by many poor managers and owners. I asked for pay increases when they were promised and not given, and never threatened to leave. When I gave my notice, it was because I had not been treated as I should have been and already had another position.
My experience and talent were well rewarded when I left my long-time employer and returned to purchasing. I began as a buyer. Three months later I was promoted to Purchasing Supervisor. When I retired, my title was Purchasing Manager. I tell people that I have occupied both sides of the purchasing desk.
Answer each of the questions I have asked. Don’t assume that employees are leaving because the pay is low. Avoid the reputation of a company that matches other offers. Avoid rehiring former employees that left you for better pay. They almost always leave again when there is another better offer.
I had one employee that I rehired three different times. He was a hard worker and only wanted to work part-time. We laid him off each time because my boss thought someone else that would work full-time would be better at his job. This was never the case. I’ll talk more about my management philosophy in another column.
Charles (Chuck) Kensinger 