A worker shortage might be excellent news for the economy! Maybe, just maybe, firms will awake and see workers’ substantial contribution to their success. Some CEOs take unconscionable sums and destroy their firm’s value, unlike many frontline workers who create value. During the pandemic, CEOs took vast sums as they laid-off workers. Some firms sought bankruptcy protection, but hat didn’t stop their greedy CEOs from snatching hefty bonuses.

We have a worker shortage and firms are scrambling to hire whomever is willing. Some firms, like McDonalds have paid signing bonuses. Canada’s Loblaw and its competitors paid a bonus to frontline workers when the pandemic began. They stopped it after three months in unison with their competitors. When government confronted them about this collusion, they claimed it happened independently. Go figure! It’s like you caught your three-year-old with her hand in the cookie jar and she said, Mom, “Cookie Monster did it!”

Worker Shortage Inevitable With Shoddy Treatment

Loblaw’s behavior disturbs me. During the bonus period, profits soared. Per se, that’s no problem. I favor firms making profits. To be sure, I am against government taxing profits. But paying workers the bonus during the pandemic shouldn’t hinge on profits. It was just right. Meanwhile, my wife and I shopped at a Loblaw store and workers continued their excellent service despite Loblaw’s slight.

Leaders must realize frontline workers are the firm’s foundation and treat them well, not as cogs turning out CEOs bonuses! When employers treat workers like machines, they disengage. Gallup said, over several decades, they and other researchers found a strong link between employees’ workplace engagement and the company’s overall performance. Yet employers refuse to accept this. But there is good news: surveys show some firms break the mold and treat workers with respect: Cisco, Apple, Accenture, IBM, FedEx are a few.

Next Quarter’s Earnings Drives Businesses

Companies see next quarter as the prize, so they exploit workers and fudge next quarter’s numbers. I repeat: I am against government taxing business. However, I favor the Biden Build Back Better provision to tax share buybacks that the House passed, and it is before the Senate, even if it might have only a modest effect on share buybacks. Companies shouldn’t be spending billions buying back shares while exploiting workers.

Firms should present to shareholder meetings options to use buyback funds. Choices might include effects of paying bonuses to frontline workers with buyback funds. Shareholders should hear about potential strategic investments, too. Another option is stopping buy-backs for five years after layoffs. Executives, too, shouldn’t get bonuses within five years of layoffs. We must get rid of worker exploitation that enhances CEO bonuses.

They say; failing to plan, is planning to fail! A plan is what you need in order to succeed in life. Going by the flow may seem like a convenient option at first, but when you figure out that you have not planned beforehand for the challenges life throws at you, failure might be inevitable.

Similarly, for a business, creating and implementing a business plan is a major reason of surviving in the competitive market of the 21st Century. However, most entrepreneurs or firms are not properly familiar with why they need a business plan. Let us talk about the importance of a plan, for existing as well as new businesses, today.

The Importance of a Business Plan:

Mapping the Future:

One of the biggest reasons you need a plan is that it helps you in preparing for the future. You can set goals, develop techniques to achieve and set a mission statement for your business. This helps you to set your business on the right track.

Building the Foundation:

A business plan helps in building the foundation of a company. You have a detailed summary of what you need to follow and how you are going to run your business. Once you know the way you want to run a business, the rest becomes quite easy.

Regular Performance Check:

Creating a plan can help you in keeping the regular performance of your business in check and changing your operational methods accordingly.

Secure Funding:

One of the main reasons why idealistic businesses build a plan is because it is a secure way to protect your funding. You can calculate the previous spending, diving your funds on different tasks and take out an estimate of what you will earn in the future.

What Kind of Business Plan Do You Need?

There are mainly two types of businesses – one which already exists and a newly established. For a newly started business, the best way to develop a plan is to aim for a one-page business plan.

A robust and detailed plan will just take your attention of the other important things you need to take care of in the initial start-up stage, for example, marketing strategies.

On the other hand, an existing business needs to sketch out how they performed in the past and then build a detailed plan for the future, with a vision to achieve an objective.

The Final Verdict:

Having a business plan is one of the most important steps a firm might take, in order to keep a track of the present performance, and sketching out what the company needs to achieve in the future. Business plans can help a firm create a mission statement and then follow it until they stand on a firm foundation and years of experience.

It is sometimes amazing how much we money we spend on eating and drinking without even realizing it. Even just snacks and sodas and coffees can add up shockingly fast. It turns out you probably can eat and drink better without spending lots of money and in fact saving money.

Keep a log for a couple of weeks of where you spend money on food and drink. It doesn’t have to be anything formal, just take notes, and you’ll probably be surprised. You should see places you can save money without cutting back.

One place lots of money is spent is on soda, coffee, and similar drinks especially when in the office. I put a little mini refrigerator, about 30 dollars, in my office and I buy sodas by the case from Sams club instead of across the street now. It paid for itself in about 6 weeks, and the soda is the same! No compromises here.

I also found I was spending over $1000 a year on cups of coffee! I now make better coffee in my office for far less money. Yes, I’ll still go to the local coffee shop if I want to get out of the office and hangout somewhere, usually with my laptop, but if I just want coffee I make it myself and it’s better coffee too.

Most days I bring lunch to the office. It saves a lot of money and I have a healthier and usually tastier lunch.

I still do go out. I splurge on expensive meals for example. But I can eat and drink as well or better in my day to day life and save money easily.