January 21, 2021 Antonio Aguirre, Jr. STOP COUNTING YOUR CHICKENS – HERE’S WHY

STOP COUNTING YOUR CHICKENS – Business debts or personal debts are the byproduct of this. Be careful when counting your monetary profits, signed contracts with clients, unpaid income as real money, unclaimed investment gains or simply just your commissions on work completed. The actual realized money and returns might be a lot lower, delayed or even become impossible to materialize. The end game, bankruptcy or deep debts.

I’m here to help prevent you from counting your chickens. These are some of the things I realized over the years as a consultant and an entrepreneur including being a freelancer:

1. Contracts are only as good as the paper they’re written on – I’ve had a huge long term contract with a multinational brand cancelled due to the pandemic. I’ve also had contracts that are rendered useless because there’s always a way out of it with a good lawyer. In the end, a contract is just a piece of paper.

2. Not all clients pay their suppliers or contractors on time or in full – I’ve had clients who have delayed payments for as much as 180 days using all the tricks in the trade. I’ve also experienced not getting paid for the last 2 months of my contract on deaf ears. I’ve moved on from those. But I choose not to mention who they are because I don’t like burning bridges or just badmouthing anybody. That’s not the way I operate.

3. A job offer of a new job or a higher salary promise can easily be withdrawn overnight – A company can offer you these today and change their minds tomorrow because a better one just landed on their laps. Breaks of the game. All you get is a rejection letter. Move on instead.

4. Any profits that is on paper may not translate into money in your hands – If you were promised 25% commissions from a deal and it’s on paper, remember that it’s not money yet. It’s just on writing. Count the 25% once it’s in your bank account or in your hands. Otherwise, you’ll be getting a rude awakening to find out that it’s not coming in ever.

5. Any investment gains on paper can vanish in a blink of an eye – I’ve had visible investment gains in Bitcoins and stocks vanish in a matter of hours with fluctuations.

I could give you more examples and a lot of times where I counted how much money I was going to make on a deal on paper or a handshake deal, but these are just a few of them to make you see the point. You don’t treat the amounts payable to you as REAL cash and use it before you actually have it, PERIOD.

Any business that you’re a shareholder or a founding member of, might be profitable but also could be in deep debts with no cash in the bank. Been there. It’s so common to have a negative cashflow and it can happen for these 3 reasons:

1. Customers who don’t pay on time or don’t pay at all. This is the worst.
2. Too much money tied up in stocks that are not sold. It’s dead stocks.
3. Large investment sums made up of unproductive assets. These don’t produce any money for you.

Being a shareholder of a highly profitable company might make you feel wealthy, but it’s going to be a different story if the business is so heavily indebted that it’s forced to go into what is called “liquidation” mode to pay off it’s creditors. This is common now for most of those in brick in mortar business, especially in fashion. If the income stream has not arrived yet, DO NOT commit to spending it.

Do not make plans and commit to anything that involved money you don’t have yet in your hands like:

1. Money owed to you by a client or a friend. This ends any relationship you have with the in no time. People literally kill each other because of these. Or worse, themselves.
2. Dividends payable from a business you own that delays paying due to cashflow problems. They will use delaying tactics on you as much as possible like not releasing checks on a Monday because it’s “unlucky” or only releasing money on a Friday between 2 to 4PM. I can name every delaying tactic in the game, I’ve experienced it.
3. A fresh job contract that isn’t signed yet or a new job that you haven’t begun. I went to my first day on a job that was literally also my last day. SMH

Things change. Life is handled with care because it’s fragile. People make false promises and they play games. That’s how life it. You will encounter a thousand and 1 disappointments in life. It’s all part of the game of life. Do not risk being left high and dry with commitments you can’t fulfill. Don’t celebrate a great new job on social media, or buy a new car only to have your contract terminated after your probation period. (Yes, so me during my 20’s LOL)

Are you still not ready to stop counting your chickens before they hatch? Here’s some more.

– Don’t rush. WTF are you in a hurry for anyway? This isn’t a race. Pause, be patient and if in doubt, you learn how to WAIT. Calm your tits. Stop being too excited like a kid on Christmas day.
– Don’t become greedy or show off to people. Or else, the jokes on you.
– Be 110% sure that you have all the funds before using them in any way. This is how so many people end up in serious debts. Or employees who end up in credit card debt. They buy that new iPhone 12 Pro Max only to find out that they’re not getting paid by a client on the 30th of the month. That sucks.

Question of the day: What’s your best “counted my chickens before they hatched” moment?

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“STOP COUNTING YOUR CHICKENS – WHY PEOPLE GET INTO BUSINESS OR PERSONAL DEBTS” topic

“STOP COUNTING YOUR CHICKENS”