TCB – Taking Care of Business
Episode 137 – The Bizarro Jerry – is a classic (aren’t they all?) Several amazing story lines come together to create a perfect medley of TV soup – mmmmmmmmmmm. It was like the mulligatawny of sitcoms. (Please tell me you got the Soup Nazi reference)
Man Hands was brought into our vernacular. Elaine has another breakup – but this serves as the back drop for her 4 new Bizarro friends – Bizarro George, Bizarro Jerry, well, you get the idea. George enters the forbidden city and is eventually kicked out.
And Kramer? Oh yeah, Kramer is doing his own bizarro turn by starting a new job. A job he doesn’t get paid for. A job he eventually screws up and gets fired from.
When Jerry questions him about what he’s up to, Kramer goes into an explanation of his “career” at Brandt and Leland and his newfound place in life. Jerry asks him about his comp and Kramer’s response is a very sincere “No no no, I don’t want any pay. I’m doing this just for me”
Hope you are paying attention kids, because here comes the startup lesson. No pay is the same thing as working for nothing. Let’s get that established as our baseline assumption. No pay. I just wanted to type it again for emphasis.
Far too many startups live in this world – the world of the “expensive hobby”. In order to create demand they drop prices so low that all of the margin is squeezed out like a lemon. They are broke and sometimes broken. And thus their idea becomes a lemon. That was pure stylistic symbolism right there kids.
Entrepreneurs often follow the path of copying another business and simply charging less for the product or service in order to create demand. They assume they can get by on less profit per job because they will “make it up on volume”. They don’t take a salary for months and all they are really doing is artificially propping up something that should have had the plug pulled long ago.
Don’t get me wrong, in many cases you do have to work for free to get something off the ground. Expecting to make money on Day 1 isn’t realistic, but if you aren’t making money on Day XXX that isn’t realistic either. Determining your Day XXX is an decision only you can make – read the tea leaves and listen for your spouse’s disgruntledness – and let those be your signs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF5gDTA9zGM
Dan Beenken, CBGI
