Dollars and Sense | Page 7

little satisfaction in
getting a judgment for one hundred dollars, when your lawyers fees are
fifty dollars and you have expended two hundred dollars' worth of time
and worry over the case.
Ask your lawyer's advice on the legal status of your operations, and not
on business propositions.
If you are a success in business that is an evidence, generally speaking,
that your judgment is good.
You can get all the advice you want for nothing. If you state a case and

lay out a proposed plan, and then ask your friends' advice on the subject,
you can safely count that nine out of ten will say that your proposition
is all right as outlined by you.
These friends figure that you have given the plan much thought and
study, and it is much simpler for them to coincide with your opinion
than to take an opposite view.
Honestly between ourselves we must admit that when we seek advice
we generally do it only for the purpose of having our own opinions
confirmed, and, if our friends do not agree with us, we say they are
prejudiced.
Lawyers don't see the smooth, systematic, well balanced side of
business, and their knowledge is all negative instead of positive on
business matters.
If you have an important move in mind, map out the plan carefully, lay
the plan out in detail, be conservative in your estimate of prospective
profits, and always make a liberal allowance for cost over the figures
you have prepared, and deduct a liberal percentage from the receipts
you anticipate. Be very conservative in matters of figures, and then
some.
The building you propose to put up will cost far more than your
architect tells you. You know this in advance, and you make an
allowance for extras, but when the bills all come in you will find that in
addition to the estimated cost and the extras which you have figured on,
there will be something else to pay.
The sales of a business you propose to embark in will be less than you
or your manager figure they will be.
Always allow for enthusiasm and imagination in the matter of
prospective receipts.
When your plans are all in shape show the documents, contracts and
agreements to your lawyer, and get his legal, but not his personal,

advice.
You must be the doctor of your own business.
Remember, a lawyer knows law, and a business man knows business.

Be a Producer
Employes are divided into two classes--the kind that makes profits and
the kind that is on the expense side of the ledger.
The young man who has the foresight and ability to get on the selling
side, the side that brings profit to the house, has the decided advantage
over the young man who is on the expense side.
Book-keepers, stock-keepers, clerks and all other expense employes are
paid far lower salaries than the salesmen and buyers, those who
produce results.
In the newspaper business the editor with his college education has
practically attained his limit of progress when he is 40 years old. He
may get from $20.00 to $80.00 or even $100.00 a week as editor.
The young man in the advertising department may get from $50.00 to
$200.00 a week. He is a producer of tangible results; the editor
produces theoretical results.
In every business the man who sells things, who brings in the profits, is
the man who gets the best pay.
The boss will grudgingly give a dollar a week increase to the
book-keeper. He only thinks what it would cost him to replace the
book-keeper.
The producer gets his increases in $5.00 and $10.00 a week jumps.
The expense employe is in competition with the great army of the

unemployed, and there are multitudes who will work for less money
than the man who is holding his job on the expense side.
The producer, on the other hand, knows how much profit he is bringing
into his house, and if those profits are steadily increasing he may be
sure his salary will increase proportionately. If it does not he can
always get another position by laying the facts and figures before some
more enterprising house.
The producer is seldom out of a situation. If for any reason he is out of
employment temporarily he can go to a good house and work on
commission, or get a small drawing account, and at three or six months
talk salary on actual showing made.
The shrewd business man won't let profits slip away if he can help it, so
the real producer sits in a pretty good seat. He has only to show what he
can do and he will be paid accordingly.
The expense man's only stock in trade is faithfulness, neatness and
amount