50 year old Children

The holidays and the new year are personally enjoyable but are a pain in the ass for work. January is the month which truck plates must be renewed and as usual NOT ONE person has saved the money to pay for them. So I am left to be responsible and pay for every ones plates which on average is probably around $1800 per truck. One guy is actually going to trade in his truck for a newer one and the biggest reason is his truck needs brakes, tires, and some other repairs and maintenance. He has been paid $30,000 for the last 6 months and doesn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Now $30,000 in 6 months isn't exactly getting rich, but it is a livable income and that is paid to him, no taxes coming out of that. His money management is nonexistent and has no clue how to run a business which is what he does. He doesn't even have a checking account for his business. The week of Christmas I mailed his check on Monday and he usually gets it two days later at the most. Well this week it didn't get there before Christmas and he calls me on Christmas Eve all upset that he didn't get his paycheck and he can't buy his kids presents and that I ruined Christmas. I (as calmly as I could) explained that I don't work for the post office and wasn't my fault in the least. I should have told him to manage his money so he wouldn't live paycheck to paycheck but I'm 29 years old and I don't think I should have to explain to a 50 year old man the concept of money management. His wife doesn't work and hasn't for the 3 years I've known him so it's not because of the economy that she isn't working. Now that's none of my business but when he doesn't even have money for expenses that truckers incur on a daily basis and I have to advance him the money then gets pretty tiresome.

I know what it's like to be part of a business that failed and realize that small business owners need to be fiscally responsible and need plenty of good luck as well. I pay myself a fairly small wage and spend as little as I can out of the business. My company was not paid $21,000 due to companies going out of business and there is little recourse I can pursue to get these funds. I'm still able to continue because of proper money management and not think that because there is alot of money in my business account that any of that is mine personally. The trucking industry is such that we handle a large amount of money but only an extremely small percent of that is ours to keep. This is due to the cost of the truck payments, insurance, fuel, and trailer payments. Sure I would love to get a nice new vehicle to replace the one that is taking a shit on me and just make the payments for it out of the business, but it's just not the smart thing to do. I probably wouldn't even notice the $500 a month payment for a new car, but I've only been in business a little over a year and I haven't earned the reward of a new car yet. I've heard something like 50% of small businesses fail in the first 2 years and 90% fail within the first five years. These are not exact numbers but the point is that a VAST MAJORITY fail. Why am I going to be any different? I think many of these people think that "I'm different and I KNOW what I'm doing." Well the unfortunate part is I'm not different than many of the people who have failed. I think that I could do everything perfect and my business could still fail. Every month there are several brokers that go out of business and if they happened to be some of my bigger accounts then I would be screwed. So what gives me the right to piss money away on a new car if I could do a perfect job and my business still fail? I believe that this is where many small businesses fail, not necessarily a new car but things that are not a business necessities. I've made it through my first year in business and hope to give this same speech in 12 months!