For fear it might sound like the business community is continually harping on about how difficult their lot genuinely is, it might be worth pointing out this week exactly what it means to be a person in business – particularly running your own business – in this day and age. The best way to present the case for the business community is to compare and contrast it with that of the employee. Let's start with the employee.
As a a staff worker, someone who has a job, security is the first plus that comes to mind. Of course no job is safe these days and the definition of security has shrunk from long-term to short-term gain. Nonetheless, it remains a gain. Having a job enables you to plan your life; you can think about the future, what you might like enjoy doing in it and put aside some of your disposable income to make this a reality and something to really look forward to. In other words, a regular wage package allows workers to dream. Without dreams, goals, targets or ambitions, what would be the purpose of living?
Now to suggest that all workers have disposable income in these straitened times is naturally a massive presumption that could not go untested – so we will allow for the fact that many employees right now are actually working simply to survive, with the weekly or monthly wage packet entirely accounted for well in advance. Others face even greater challenges having to meet negative equity debt on their properties – often the family home – on a crawlback basis – which may have them facing a future without any disposable income to speak of for years and years to come. Still, they persevere, because ultimately, working towards finally paying off the debt, gives them the goal they need to keep going.
For the business community on the other hand, wages and pay packets are never foregone conclusions. The only certainties are tax levies, social insurance, rent, rates, healthcare costs and whatever new government hikes, charges, measures, (such as this week's direction to SMEs to cover the first four weeks of staff sick leave ) and penalties get thrown into the mix at least once year with the annual budget.
Typical rents for even one small retailer operating in any of Mayo's busy shopping towns right now can amount to anything from €500 to €800 a week. This is not an exaggeration. The Mayo Advertiser is constantly meeting with clients whose marketing spends are severely compromised by rent dues of this order – and that is before any overheads or staff wages are taken into account.
Imagine for a moment, opening the door to your place of work on a Monday morning, knowing that before you can hope to earn a cent that week, you must take in up to €1,000 from customers. Think about the pressure that goes with that – and the strain it might put on an individual or a family.
The reason business people do not cave into the pressure-cooker type situation they face each week is because they are a different breed to those of us who are employed. In a sense, they are a superior breed. They take risks, they get by on loans, often they don't even take a wage in order to ensure one priority is met – that staff are paid; that staff are kept in their jobs.
This brings us back to the employees – the same staff mentioned just above. By now it should be clear that the line between business people and those who work for them is actually a lot thinner than we might have thought. In fact, in a sense, we are all the one, working through this together. If we don't work at our jobs for the benefit of the business, the business – and our jobs - may eventually cease to exist.
