Don’t Buy a Trashcan!!

I can always tell if a small business is going to fail in the first 5 years. The first thing I look for is what type of trash can they have.

A friend of mine recently started a company and I went to his office. It was nice. He had a great entrance, nice business cards, shirts with his logo, and an $80 trash can.

I’ve been in business for 10 years, and I still don’t own a trash can. Seriously. I don’t own a trash can. So, where do I put my trash? In a cardboard box. And no, I don’t order boxes just to put trash in them. We have a ton of boxes from UPS, or from other sources that we mark as “Trash” and then just fill them up and throw away the box with the trash.

So you’re saying…that’s a good story Jeremy, but what the heck does that have to do with my business?

The most important component of running a business is not your product, not your business cards, not your t-shirts….but your cash flow.

Later I’ll talk more about this, but I want you to think about this. Why pay $80 for something you throw trash into? That $80 will be much more useful for inventory, supplies, and payroll. Trust me.

Best regards,

Jeremy