Watch this video if you are asking yourself “Will Obamacare Hurt My Landscape Business?”
I receive the Obamacare question fairly frequently. What’s my opinion on Obamacare? Do I think Obamacare is going to hurt the lawn care industry? Do I think it’s going to hurt business in general?
I’m going to give you my opinion.
It’s a controversial one, but I’m going to give it to you. I’m going to tell you how you should think about this. The question usually comes in two forms. One, “I’m thinking about getting into the business, but I’m afraid to start. I’m looking at Obamacare and what it might do to my business”, or “I’m in the business and I’m thinking, maybe it’s time to sell. There’s so much government regulation. I don’t like the way things are going. Obamacare scares me.”
First, this is a simplified version of my opinion. My opinion is that I’m disappointed with Obamacare. That’s the nicest way I can say it. The biggest reason why I’m disappointed with ObamaCare is because I don’t think it’s legislated fairly. Forget whether or not I think it ever should have been enacted. It, in my opinion, is unfair. I can go into other reasons, but let me just pick on this one. Keep in mind though, there is something you need to stick with this video to hear.
What’s happened is that, many very large corporations have been given waivers to basically opt out of it. There was such a need of support for this system to get it passed that many people were given waivers in exchange for their support. But let’s think about it on a smaller level for us. ObamaCare only kicks in with 50 plus employees. I can’t remember all the details but, there are some penalties involved for something around 35 employees. My point is that even if you’re over 50 employees, from the best of my recollection, that you don’t really pay the penalty on all 50 employees if you don’t pay for it. You’re paying for some number of those 50 employees and then those over.
That’s not what we’re here to talk about. My point is that, why is it that if you grow a business and you do everything it takes to get to that point and you sacrifice and invest and take all the risk, when you get to 50 employees you’re treated differently than everybody else? To me that is extremely unfair and it does, I do believe, keep some guys from wanting to cross over 50, but not to the extent that some blogs and articles want us to believe. For example, if I’m at 40 employees, it’s not stopping me from going to 70. There’s no way. I’m not going to look and say, “I’m stopping my business. I’m done growing. This is good enough.” You’re not going to do that.
Generally, I think the entrepreneurial spirit, the reason you got out of bed and started a company and took all the risk is, you’re in this for more than money. You’re in this for the challenge. You’re in this because you’re going to do something great. You’re in this for so many other reasons. You don’t just hit the magical wall and say, “I’m done. This is good enough.” I don’t believe that. I think it’s a little overblown and that companies won’t just magically stop at 50 employees. Now, we’re not done. Companies are going to consider this, so I hope I’m not stating this incorrectly to construe that I think this is no big thing, because it is a big deal. I think it’s really bad that companies that are over 50 employees are penalized. I think the law would work far better if it was uniform if you have a thousand employees, 50 employees, two employees. We all work under the same guidelines, then we’re playing in the same ballpark.
When I hit 50 employees, I shouldn’t suddenly have a tremendous amount of cost that my competitors at 40 don’t have. That seems very wrong, and that’s the most troubling part about it. There’s other things that trouble me about it. That’s my take on it. I’m not against helping other people. I’m not against charity. I’m not against any of that stuff. I just have different opinions on how it should be done. I realize that I may be turning you off with my opinion here. Let me talk about what the bigger issue is whether you think it’s right or wrong. It will, without question, add layer of cost to your company. Whether you agree or disagree with the law, it will add cost to your company.
I think there’s a bigger mindset here. The deal is, you’re going to be hit as a business owner with all kinds of stuff. ObamaCare is just one of many things. If you’d been around in business 20 years ago, lots of stuff has changed. If you are going to be around in business 20 years from now, lots of things are going to change. You’re going to get hit with this and that. I can’t predict it. My job as a business owner is to solve problems. My job as a business owner is to react. My job as a business owner is to figure out how to make my business work regardless of taxes, regardless of legislation, regardless of economic events, regardless of employment. That’s my job. If I’m not willing to do that, then I shouldn’t be a business owner. If I’m willing to do that, I’m going to make money.
Another thing to think about here is, if a whole bunch of your competitors are going to run around with the same attitude and say, “I’m out. I’m done. I’m not going to do it. I have to quit the game. I’m not going to enter the market.” Good news for you. There’s less people and less price pressure. If you’re willing to play the game and you’re willing to figure it out and go through the pain and solve the problem and be creative about it, then you will get the rewards. The more your competitors that bail out of the market, all the better for you.
I would also ask you if you’re a new business owner, or thinking about starting, and this is going to keep you from doing it, would you rather go work for somebody else that also has to comply with ObamaCare? For example, if you think ObamaCare is going to destroy your company, then are you going to go work for somebody else’s company that’s going to also get destroyed? Because, now you have zero control. If all companies are going to be destroyed by ObamaCare, you might as well at least be in control and run your own. I’m being dramatic, but the logic is, I’m going to shut down my business because ObamaCare is going to end the world and I’m going to go get another job? Then, what’s different about their company versus your company? It makes no sense to me.
Your job, your charge, your responsibilities as business owner is to fix it and figure it out. What are we as business owners? We are guys that put out fires and solve problems and create processes to get around future potential problems. We are problem solvers. If you want to be a high paid employee and you don’t want the responsibility of building a business or you want to be a really high-paid sales person, what’s your job? At the end of the day your job is to solve problems. The guys that solve problems make all the money. Nobody promotes the guy to make $300,000 a year doing the easy job. They promote the guy to make $300,000 a year that can solve big problems, that everyday deals with big problems. That’s your job. Your job, as I’ve said three times, is to put out fires, solve problems, figure it out.
ObamaCare is not going to hurt you. It’s not going to end you. It may reduce profits, but people are going to figure it out. You’re going to figure it out. I’m going to figure it out. Yes, it’s frustrating. Yes, it’s another challenge. Yes, it’s one more thing. We’re going to figure it out. We’re going to get past it and we’re going to make a bunch of money as business owners. Last thing I’ll say, I wasn’t around making money in the 70’s. I don’t know the 70’s and I think it was the 70’s that tax rates were super high, like the highest tax rate was 80% or something insane. What’s our highest tax bracket today? It’s not 80%. I’m not paying anywhere near 80% in federal income taxes.
I remember listening years ago to a guy named, Jim Roan who I really like. If you have never heard of Jim Roan, he’s like a Tony Robins and Zig Ziglar kind of guy. He was one of the early guys. He’s somebody I resonate with. I remember listening to one of his tapes and he’s talking about the fact that you’ve basically got to have a plan, you’ve got to have a road map for your life and for your business. He talks about all the excuses that people make. I can’t do this because of that. I can’t do this because of this or that. He talks about how much and how high taxes were in the 70’s as compared to probably in the 80’s or 90’s when he recorded this tape. Taxes had gone way down. My point and my takeaway is, we’re going to have problems. Our tax rate is so much lower than it used to be a long time ago.
Yeah, it’s higher then when Bush was a president. But, it’s so much lower than what, when Jimmy Carter was a president. We’ve all survived. We’ve all thrived. We’ve all made a lot of money because, what are we? We’re entrepreneurs and we figure it out. If you’re not going to go into business because of that, it’s a huge mistake. You should do it. If you’re going to close your business and sell it because of ObamaCare, it doesn’t make any sense to me. Figure it out. If you’re going to stop growing because of it, I don’t get it. Because, if you’re not growing, your business is going backwards and you’re shrinking and you’re not becoming better. You’re not going to make more money. You’re going to slowly fade away and disappear. Consider one more challenge in life, figure it out, and you will do fine. Good luck.
