Separate

In my opinion, one of humans' biggest mistakes is that we think that everyone wants to own a business and get rich. Most people assume that to start a business is not a hardship, well, not as much a hardship as working from 9-6 because they can set their own paces and take as many breaks as they want to. And when the business grow, they can give themselves a salary and give as much raise as they want to.

As for me, I think I lack discipline to run things on my own, and to be successful, you have to be ultra-disciplined. I even have issues waking up in the mornings, for God's sake, to start my own business is a recipe for disaster. If I had money, sure, I could start something, and then I would eventually run out of money to hire all the people to run the business for me because I'm too lazy to take care of things lepas tu hancur.

I think starting and maintaning a business are not as simplistic as people, especially the people involved in MLMs are making it to be. Maybe it's easy to start a business, but to maintain it, like I said, you have to be ultra-disciplined. And looking at my friends, most of them don't understand the concept of separate entities. From what I can see, too many people are (1) using business assets for personal use, (2) pay suppliers after the given credit term instead of utilising the discount that will be given if your credit score is good, (3) exercise cost-cutting on staff expenses, such as not giving a bonus or salary increase instead of reducing own expenses such as flying economic instead of business, and the most important (4) not taking any advice given by financial controller or accountant

Here's a breakdown of why:-

(1) It comes as a shock to me that most people don't know the meaning of an asset. An asset is something that you don't merely own, but it has to generate income for and gives benefit to your business too. Most people use the money from the business to buy something for personal use and pass it off as a business asset, which to me, is wrong not only from an accountant's point of view but also from an ethical point of view. Ask yourself before you buy something that strikes your fancy, what benefit can a BMW X5 give to your business?

(2) I think if you have a business that deals with a lot of suppliers, it's better to maintain a good relationship with them instead of making them our necessary enemies. How to maintain a good business relationship with suppliers? Well, that's easy, pay before the credit term ends to get discounts and build a personal rapport with them. There's this one guy in my department who oozes charm out of his every pore and he usually takes his time to layan all the suppliers since I don't have the patience to do all that. Seriously, I really don't know how he does it so effortlessly, but everything he does is always on the mark.

(3) In most of the companies, staff costs are among the highest expenses you can find in a company's P&L statement, thus why some companies are reluctant to spend more on its staff. But, you see, in the real world, money buys loyalty and the more appreciative you are to an employee, the more loyal he will be to the company or to you. Just give a month's bonus or duit raya or an 8% increment, the employee would be more happy to work for you for the next n years. Plus, I believe employees are the biggest assets to a company. I mean, even if you have a RM5 million machinery but you don't hire the right people to efficiently operate the machine, then what's the point of having a RM5 million machinery anyway?

(4) In my opinion, most business owners should know how accounting works. Most accounts and finance people are not merely bookkeepers, the roles have expanded to include analysing the accounts, budgeting, forecasting cash and revenues, and cleaning up the messes left by the business owners who know shit about accounts and finance, and thinking of ways how to turn losses into profits, and etc etc etc, well, you get the drift. Sometimes I think there are people who are too stupid to own a business and yet too arrogant to take any business advice. They think they know everything. Oh God these people are insufferable. And wow I sound like a prick (intentional).

Here's a video of a baby elephant to remind you that I'm as stupid as they come. Awwwww why are all baby animals so cute?

 
Baby Elephant's First Swim! from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.