In my work as an Accountant I am privy to a lot of information. Businesses like clandestine lovers have their secrets and their jealousies. But in the position of intimacy with numbers, the kimono opens and bears them all. A business of course is people or once was. The likelihood that many who had productive lives will be replaced or have been replaced by some version of a soulless AI is high. In fact it appears to be happening now. I imagine it must happen as forward progress is the way of mankind.
Some information I see wouldn't be earth shaking but a little evaluation tells its tale. The concept of living pay check to pay check may not be immediately seen but it is there even for businesses with good sales. Accountants learn early on that income must exceed outgo if there is to be survival in form of profitability. How in the world can a business live on 7% or 8% profit? On high volume. Grocery stores famously have 2-3% margins but have to do little to get people to eat. A Hair salon I know of does reilably 22-25% and that is very good but getting numbers up is a chore and often heartbreaking with staff mutinies, new openings across the street etc., so is it enough? The basic concept of having meaningful work, a living wage and a decent life is slipping away even for apparently profitable companies. Mom and Pop have been swallowed up and the AI and robotics days we are in have just begun to bite. More will lose their life's work and with it their purpose or meaning in life. This is the stuff of dystopian sci fi and we are living it in slow or maybe not so slow ways that are not easy to get a handle on. The proverbial fron getting cooked story.
My work, which I enjoy, let's me see the businesses and talk to the owners, hear of their troubles and joys…they, not all, are having a rough time. But some will say business ownership is always a rough time, Yes, but this seems different. It seems rudderless except for a few at the top of the process who might know where the hell it is leading us all too. It is said that robotics will give us all leisure time and time to create artworks and do the things we love…what? That sounds idyllic but a little time at leisure will tell you it ain't all it's cracked up to be. It actually could become a nightmare. Not everyone has an inner Michael Angelo, waiting for the day when work is obsolete and replaced by a pallet and brush. Of course, that is work too and believe me great artists work hard at their craft. But, could it just be that we are rushing toward some unseen cliff that as a herd unaware of the fall ahead we just blindly run?
Yes, my view from the top so to speak is quite a vista to behold. It has sunshine forever for 10% and a nightmarish leisurely life for the rest of us. I predict the day will come when men and women will pay for vacations where they chop wood, till earth and slaughter rabbits for stew. Ah, the good old new days.
Best,
Donn Marier
DM-Your Own CFO