The Cowtown Chronicles

I regularly read Penelope Trunk’s blog — probably more for the entertainment and stream-of-consciousness writing than for actual business advice.

The article she posted today, though, motivated me to comment, which I normally don’t do. Unfortunately my comment is being held in a SPAM or profanity filter (sorry mom), not because I cursed out Penelope, but because I used my usual salty language to describe what the business community is doing to itself.

Essentially my thought is this:

How can any rational person look at our economy/business climate — where it’s not only okay, but widely expected and encouraged, for companies to not pay for services they’ve received — and think that this is healthy or good?

I don’t blame Penelope for doing what she had to do to keep her company and family solvent. I can’t say that I exactly blame the investor who gave her the money with the requirement that it not be used to pay back debt.

I DO blame the business community in general for their complete and utter disregard for honesty and fair dealing with other people. The (real or imagined) expectation of double-digit growth every quarter is causing people to completely lose their minds. Companies cut corners and build unsafe (or minimally functional) products, they cut support staff for those products, pissing off their customers, they cut pay and benefits for their employees, all so they can report that they’ve beat their estimate for the quarter to please some institutional investor to whom the company is just a 3-letter abbreviation and a share price. It’s bullshit, it’s wrong, and until that behavior stops, we’re going to continue the death spiral our economy and country is in.

The not only knowledge, but EXPECTATION, that startups screw vendors over all the time is infuriating to me. I thought the gold-rush, grow exponentially, expand-expand-expand days were over? What happened to slow, responsible, sustainable growth?

The knowledge that I can expect to be treated this way is one of the main reasons I’m so fearful of becoming a freelance anything. How can I willingly risk everything I have creating a new business if I can’t count on the people who contract for my services to pay me? They expect to be paid for the services or products that they provide, right?