To My Valued Employees

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of my company, and more specifically, your jobs. As you know, the economy has changed dramatically for the worse and presents many extreme challenges; However, the good news for you is this: The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does urgently and directly threaten your job is the changing political landscape in this country.

Let me tell you a few facts which might help you decide what is in your best interest. First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, what you should take the time to understand is that for every single business owner on planet Earth, there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and what you assume. Sure, you see me park my Porsche outside, you’ve seen my condo, you’ve seen my travel photos. I’m sure that all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

What you don’t see is the back story.

I started this, my third company, 8 years ago. At that time, I was $150,000 in debt. I had $50.00 in my bank account and had not had any income for a year. My diet consisted of pasta and cereal because every dollar I had went into building this company. I drove a Honda civic that my grandmother had bought for me when I was 18. I spent 18 hours a day, every day, on my computer, teaching myself every aspect of business, which you see in practice every day at the company that now employs you.

While you physically arrive at the office at 10am and leave at 6pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have your evenings and weekends all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have those freedoms, no matter how hard I try. I eat and breathe this company every minute of every day. There is no rest, there is no weekend, there is no way to tell my brain not to think only about this company and how it must succeed for your, and for my, future. Every day of my life, this business occupies every waking moment of my day, and every thought I have. You may only see the fruits of the last 12 years of my labor; but you probably don’t stop to think about the back story and the sacrifices that I’ve made.

Yes, business ownership has a few benefits (which honestly in the end may not be worth the freedoms it allows) but the price I’ve paid by choosing this life is steep and not without deep wounds.

Unfortunately, the costs of running this business in the United States, and having employees, is eclipsing the benefits and I’ll explain why:

I am being taxed to death and the United States government thinks that I don’t pay enough. In personal income tax alone, I pay 42% of my annual income in taxes. In addition, I pay Vermont state taxes, I pay federal taxes, I pay property taxes, I pay sales and use taxes, I pay payroll taxes, I pay workers compensation taxes, I pay unemployment taxes, I pay taxes on taxes. I have to hire a bookkeeper and an accountant to manage all of these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for paying them to help me with all of this.

Who actually deserves assistance from the government and who is really stimulating the United States economy?
Me, the guy who worked his ass off for 12 years providing jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

Here is what many of you don’t understand…to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had the government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of giving over $300,000 of MY MONEY last year to the government, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of better salaries. But because of this government, that’s not the world we live in, and it’s quickly getting worse.

Business is at the heart of the United States and always has been. To restart this massively failed economy, you must stimulate it, not help it die. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor and mediocre citizens of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine, and that they are those that deserve your and my hard earned money.

In conclusion: If the United States government doesn’t dramatically reduce taxes or if more new taxes are forced on me or on my company, my reaction and the reaction of every other independent business owner in this country will be inevitable and unavoidable; we will be forced to fire our employees. They can then join the others who are pleading with the government to pay for their mortgages, pay for their shitty American cars, and pay for their children’s futures because they no longer have the luxury of having a job provided by people like me. I will be forced to sell the company and move to a country that has an intelligent government.