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Oct 30

Three Dragons That Steal Your Financial Wealth And How to Fight Them

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Smart Money Management
Do you believe in Dragons? No, I didn’t think so. While I do not believe in dragons as actual, living beings I do believe that they exist as three harmful things that can steal your financial wealth. Just like the King Arthur tales of old, these dragons will steal your wealth. Yet evolution has taught these dragons to be more subtle and sneaky and take from you without you even knowing it. Like a Knight of the Round Table you need to challenge these beasts to protect your financial kingdom. The purpose of this article is to tell you about these dragons and how you can fight them. Meeting the Dragons 1) The first is known as The Dragon of Taxes, 2) The second dragon is known as The Dragon of Inflation, and 3) The third and most important dragon is known as The Dragon of Poor Performance. Why is the third dragon the most important? Well, the first two dragons you cannot defeat. The Dragon of Taxes and the Dragon of Inflation are immortal! You see, the Dragon of Taxes represents the government’s ability to levy taxes on your earnings and wealth. Governments are always hungry for more revenue […]

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Sep 05

Keep Asking Until You Get The Answer You Want

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Customer Service, Defining Life, Human Condition
I just dealt with a situation where my financial institution originally said no to me when I tried open up a new business savings account. I expressed my frustration, then went ahead and asked another branch manager to do the same thing – he said yes. It just proves to me that people are more important than institutions. One person interprets rules one way, the other a different way. The thing to remember is not to ask for something that is unreasonable or illegal. In my case it was about the interpretation about a specific banking package. I explained to both how both the documentation and the staff below them interpreted the account the same way I did. That reasoning did not work with the person who said no, but thankfully worked with the person who said yes. Of course, I am more interested in bringing my personal business to the reasonable branch manager. Giving the answer the customer expects is easily the simplest way to retain them.
Jun 22

Volunteerism is Free but Should be Spent Wisely

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Volunteer Sector Criticism
I have been a volunteer on a number of non-profit boards since 1997 and have found that there is an assumption made by paid staff and other volunteer board members that because the time volunteered is free, it is not valuable. This is false and insulting. Like most people, I do not like having my time wasted even if it is freely given. When I have paid work that is either a waste of my time or is overwhelming I can get philosophical and say ‘At least I am getting paid for this’. But when I am placed with tasks that are tedious or overwhelming as a volunteer, I get uptight. The time I spend as a volunteer is both an investment and reward and if I am given volunteer tasks that are unpleasant or unsatisfying, then I am losing whatever reward that I can get from the effort. Managing volunteer time and responsibilities is just as important as managing paid staff time and responsibility, perhaps more so. At the minimum, staff get a financial reward which creates a contractual obligation of their part to get the job done. For volunteers, the journey is the destination. The time they give […]
Jun 08

Who is the Corporation Beholden to? To Future Shareholders/Stakeholders

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Corporations Don't Think, Summarizing a Business Organization
I attended a workshop on the risk management responsibilities of being a Director of a corporation. I asked who was the corporation ultimately responsible to: the shareholder or to the customer/stakeholder. He said neither since the corporation is responsible to itself. When I pressed further, he said that the corporation’s assets are to be used to further its goals into the future, not necessarily the goals of the immediate shareholders/stakeholders, though these two usually do align. I was fascinated. This means that as a Director of any corporation (non-profit/for-profit) my fiduciary responsibility means being loyal first to the corporation and its goals. I and the other Directors are to operate the corporation as if it was going to be around another 100 years and then govern accordingly. Our goal is to have the corporation be a service to present and future generations of shareholders and stakeholders. Even though it might be beneficial to sell all of the corporation’s assets now, thereby dissolving the corporation, and distribute them to the shareholders (meeting the shareholder’s need for a good return), this is not good for the future shareholders/stakeholders of the company who cannot be present at the table. The same principle applies […]
May 30

Businesses Need Profits to Live, but Should not Live for Profit

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Business Dilemma, Entreprenuership, Summarizing a Business Organization
For those who believed as I once did that Business is greed focused, I would like the convince you otherwise. Businesses reflect the attitude and values of the owners. A business that becomes focused just on profits loses its true purpose and ends up in the news like Enron. The purpose of business is to provide a service. In successfully doing so, its shareholders are rewarded. We need to breathe to live, but don’t need to focus on breathing to live. In fact, focusing on breathing creates anxiety and poor functioning. The same thinking applies to business profits. A business needs profits to live, but to focus on profits makes for poor functioning because of misplaced attention. In the same way that we naturally breathe as we go about living life, we naturally will create profits as we go about being a service to others.
May 29

The Great Adventure of the World of Business

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Business as Endeavor, Entreprenuership
Having worked in government and a couple of its special operating agency incarnations, having been a director on seven non-profits boards, and having helped form two political organizations, I came to the realization that business is business no matter if it is done for profit, not-for-profit, or for principle. The business of business is the need to make difficult decisions regardless of the industry you are in or who your customer is. Difficult decisions need to be made because even if money is not a consideration, time and personal energy availability is. It is simply not possible to be everything to everyone. Somebody needs to decide who gets what health care dollars, who gets the most attention, and who gets exposure to an ad campaign. Business decision making is all about strategy. With this realization, I then asked myself. “Self, if this is the true reality about the working world, would you rather make difficult decisions to quandaries that others put in front of you, or would you rather make difficult decisions about quandaries that you choose to take on?” Being both ambitious and imaginative, I definitely was interested in the latter choice. But also being a realist and the […]
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