The deadline for finalizing yearly budgets for Bright Mountain Trucking has come and gone yet little progress has been made.
“I still don’t get all this financial cliff stuff,” moaned Bud, “why can’t we just go ahead like always and just get on with it. Que Sera, Sera…whatever will be will be.”
Belinda was exasperated. “We’ve gone over that 47 times. It affects our taxes. It affects our cash flow. But most important, it affects the economy. If other companies aren’t shipping as much as they used to, our business will be affected as well. We’ve already seen a bit of slippage in what our customers are shipping. Nobody likes uncertainty and it just stalls action”
“So, we’ve always rolled with the punches. We can do the same this year.”
Cary jumped in. “This year is different. The gap between what the Republicans want and the Democrats want is huge. It will have a huge effect on us. Chances are our wonderful politicians will posture for the whole month of December and then come up with a 11th hour scheme. Then they’ll hail themselves as saviors for pulling our bacon out the fire. Pretty soon they’ll be hidden stuff in the bill that nobody will know until later. What a mess!”
Jack, President of Bright Mountain had heard enough. “Instead of moaning let’s look at the opportunity here. What we need to focus on is our people. If business has slowed down a bit, it’s a great time to get better drivers. We already have a process in place to recruit and hire better. Let’s make sure we are sticking with high standards whenever we give an offer, no matter what terminal. That will put us in better shape than just about all of our competitors. Most still don’t have a clue when it comes to finding and hiring professional, safe drivers.”
“Then we need to continue with our retention campaign to treat everyone with respect. We need to act like we’re still recruiting them every day. Then we’ll come out of this mess stronger and be ready to grow when the signals turn green.”
Nods around the table.
This story continues…