Recently, I had a rather stirring debate with a “consultant”. His contention was that there is no difference between paying just “one’s self”, and actually paying a number of employees.

“It’s the exact same thing”, he sniffed, “In fact, I’ve gone many times without a paycheck.”

(“I’ll bet you have”, I thought to myself, “especially if this is your mindset.”)

The question that I did not ask him was, “And who loses when you miss a payroll of one --- that one being YOU? As opposed to what happens when you miss a payroll of MANY?”

I always like to say that running a business is perhaps the toughest challenge (short of combat and parenthood) that a person can face. No less than Jim Rohr, CEO of PNC Bank once said to me, “I don’t even know how you entrepreneurs do it … I know that I certainly could not (the topic was starting and growing a business from scratch) do what you do.”

And, the toughest part of starting and growing a business? Well, and in my opinion, it is making a payroll … every two weeks, for every month, of every year that you are IN business.

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