Yesterday I wrote an article about keeping up with change and not relying on what your father did before you or his father before that. I feel very strongly so I am going to write another post or two on the subject.
In the last article I wrote about how people mismanage their businesses by running them the same way as they did years before. The problem gets even worse. These same companies hire bright young people out of college who have been trained to work in today’s market and then try and teach them their old systems. For the new employees to get along, they have to unlearn what they already know and then learn outdated systems that the company uses. This takes the company’s advantage of the new hires and turns it into an even bigger disadvantage. The company loses out and in the long run, the new employees lose out because they are not getting any modern experience that they can use in a new job down the line.
I belong to a community center that has been run by one woman who was the administrator for close to 30 years. She just retired and the community center now has a new administrator who is a little more advanced in technology but for years, the place was run like an organization out of the mid 1900’s. Every bill, invoice, membership letter, newsletter were sent out individually, and typed up on a type writer. Membership dues requests were sent out in alphabetical order. People with a last name starting with a “Z” might not get their bill until 15 months later.
In addition to how slow the office work got done, they did not have a website and did not accept electronic payments. Checks would have to be dropped off during office hours. This alone cost the community centers thousands of dollars since it was so hard for anyone to pay the bills that they did receive.
I am not writing this article to complain about the community center that I belong to but rather to express that there are hundreds or even thousands of organizations and businesses out there that are losing out because they didn’t keep up with the times.
Some people might think that it costs money to keep up with technology but I am saying it costs more not to keep up. Think about the costs for the above community center:
Buy a computer $500
Buy Quickbooks $130
Accept credit card payments $100
Total $730
If they invest $730 in a new system, they could be making thousands of dollars from bills that people will pay online. They will also make money in interest by getting payments on time. I think that it would pay itself off fairly quickly.
Once again, this is just an example of how companies and organizations are falling behind the times and losing out. Time is the most valuable asset in the world. It only makes sense to do everything that you can to save time.