A: The short answer is that the only effect any shutdown may have is if your business does direct business with the government. If you contract with the government, or get payments from them, then yes, a shutdown would have a negative affect on your business.
More broadly, it's hard to imagine a group less effective, less professional or more shortsighted than these elected "leaders."
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: What to know
If any of us ran our businesses the way they run the country, we would be bankrupt.
Can you imagine running a business this way? Lurching from crisis to crisis, not paying your bills, verging on defaulting on your creditors, threatening to default on your creditors — it is business (and political) malpractice.
The first and foremost agenda of any business is to do the thing it is hired to do. If you own a law firm, then you need to provide competent legal services. If you own a restaurant, then your job is to provide customers with decent food at a fair price.
The job of our elected officials is to run the country for the common good. Yet, they have proven themselves to be utterly incapable of doing this most basic of functions. If they worked for you, or for me, the whole lot of them would be fired, not just because they are incompetent, but for a myriad of other reasons:
• They damage the brand. The people who work with and for you are your brand ambassadors. If they don't get what your business is about, if they care more about their own plan than the good of the whole, they will not portray you in the best light possible and will, in the process, undoubtedly hurt your name and reputation.
When you put your own private agenda ahead of the good of the group, you risk ruining what has taken years to build up — the good name of the entity for which you work, be that a business or a country.
• They lack vision. This is especially t! rue of the president and congressional leaders. His (or her) job is to lead, not unlike a CEO. But if the CEO leads from behind, or doesn't lay out a clear vision of where the business is headed, it's tough to blame the staff when it seems like they don't know where they are going.
If you are elected to be a leader, then lead.
• They are bad for morale. Has there ever been a more depressing time to watch national politics? Has their ever been a Congress less competent than this one? Not in my lifetime. The constant bickering, the inability to work together, the blaming of one another — again, if your staff acted like this, you would clean house. Employees who spend more time fighting than working are bad for morale, bad for business, and yes, bad for the country.
• They are bad with money. When I practiced law,I once had a client who had turned over his business finances to an outside bookkeeper. She ended up robbing him of more than $100,000, and he had to file for bankruptcy. Yes, he was very bad with money, but his crooked bookkeeper wasn't much better.
If a main aspect of your job is to deal with money and create and pass budgets, and you can't even do that, what are you doing in a position of authority?
• They are selfish. Sure, people look out for themselves, but exceptional businesses and countries have people who see the bigger picture and are willing to sacrifice their own short-term agendas for long-term gains by the whole, knowing that a rising tide lifts all boats.
When you risk defaulting the country for short-term political gain, you have proven that you are not fit for the job.
They are bad at their jobs: The leader can't lead. The staff can't think straight. And they barely speak to one another.
It's a recipe for disaster, whether you are a business or a country.
Steve Strauss is a lawyer specializing in small business and entrepreneurship. His column appears Mondays. E-mail Steve at: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. An archive of his ! columns i! s here. His website isTheSelfEmployed.
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