she talked about how you should never let anyone else sign your checks. I thought, “Damn, Oprah, why are you telling
me this now?” I closed my account and opened a new one with a zero balance, and now I sign everything.
Everything!
No check is too small. No matter where I am in the world, my accountant prepares the checks, then sends them to me to sign.
It’s well worth the extra time and effort, because I catch errors no one else would. The other day, I saw a check my offices
had cut that was overpaying by more than $20,000. If I’d allowed it to go through uncorrected, that money would be gone forever.
It’s not like the vendor would be in any hurry to pay back the difference. As if! With a little extra diligence, I’m saving
myself thousands of dollars every year.
That wasn’t the only change we made. Shakim and I had to take a hard look in the mirror, and at each other, and figure out
what our priorities were and where we were going wrong. He told me that running the record label and the management companywas too much. He was overwhelmed. He needed a life! We had to choose which side of Flavor Unit would be our focus. We decided
to drop all but a couple of the artists we were managing. We were consumed with guilt about this. But guess what? Those artists
found new management, and they’re thriving today.
It was the same with our employees. I scaled back on my bookkeeper’s responsibilities so he could focus on getting his accounting
degree at college. We also had to let a couple of people go, and I had a few hard conversations with those who weren’t working
efficiently enough to justify what we were paying them.
I felt horrible about this. Shakim and I were making emotional decisions about our business and keeping people around out
of a sense of loyalty. But we weren’t doing ourselves any favors, and we weren’t helping our employees to grow, either. Instead,
we were creating a bunch of dependents. I’m proud to say that everyone we let go ended up doing just fine on their own. When
they realized they weren’t going to get that check anymore, they simply figured out their next move, hustled, and found themselves
a much better fit. We should have done it a long time ago. All those salaries we were floating could have paid for my nieces’
college fees and then some.
Shakim and I totally restructured our business, and it’s been great for us both personally and professionally.Our label has
been thriving ever since. We’ve branched into movies, merchandising, and production. We’re seeing steady growth just as many
major labels are teetering on the brink of disaster. Had we gone that route, our gravy train would have reached the end of
the line by now. We’re both still a little too softhearted when it comes to employees and the occasional venture with friends,
but for the most part we’ve been able to separate our feelings from our finances.
School Yourself
I also made a point of educating myself on the subject of personal wealth. A lot of us weren’t raised to know why one type
of savings account is better than another. Shakim and I got on-the-job training. Life has been our college, and sometimes
we had to learn the hard way. But if we’d been more proactive about getting our hands on the right information, we could have
avoided a lot of pain.
I went to the bookstore, as I often like to do, and browsed the shelves. There weren’t too many offerings catering specifically
to women, which is why I decided to write this chapter. Somehow, money isn’t supposed to be something women worry about. Butone title did catch my eye: Suze Orman’s
The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom
. Several captions in the table of contents spoke to me. I started reading it right there in the bookstore. She writes about
all kinds of things that never even occurred to me, but made perfect sense. Even the fact that you should keep all the bills
nicely folded and organized
me this now?” I closed my account and opened a new one with a zero balance, and now I sign everything.
Everything!
No check is too small. No matter where I am in the world, my accountant prepares the checks, then sends them to me to sign.
It’s well worth the extra time and effort, because I catch errors no one else would. The other day, I saw a check my offices
had cut that was overpaying by more than $20,000. If I’d allowed it to go through uncorrected, that money would be gone forever.
It’s not like the vendor would be in any hurry to pay back the difference. As if! With a little extra diligence, I’m saving
myself thousands of dollars every year.
That wasn’t the only change we made. Shakim and I had to take a hard look in the mirror, and at each other, and figure out
what our priorities were and where we were going wrong. He told me that running the record label and the management companywas too much. He was overwhelmed. He needed a life! We had to choose which side of Flavor Unit would be our focus. We decided
to drop all but a couple of the artists we were managing. We were consumed with guilt about this. But guess what? Those artists
found new management, and they’re thriving today.
It was the same with our employees. I scaled back on my bookkeeper’s responsibilities so he could focus on getting his accounting
degree at college. We also had to let a couple of people go, and I had a few hard conversations with those who weren’t working
efficiently enough to justify what we were paying them.
I felt horrible about this. Shakim and I were making emotional decisions about our business and keeping people around out
of a sense of loyalty. But we weren’t doing ourselves any favors, and we weren’t helping our employees to grow, either. Instead,
we were creating a bunch of dependents. I’m proud to say that everyone we let go ended up doing just fine on their own. When
they realized they weren’t going to get that check anymore, they simply figured out their next move, hustled, and found themselves
a much better fit. We should have done it a long time ago. All those salaries we were floating could have paid for my nieces’
college fees and then some.
Shakim and I totally restructured our business, and it’s been great for us both personally and professionally.Our label has
been thriving ever since. We’ve branched into movies, merchandising, and production. We’re seeing steady growth just as many
major labels are teetering on the brink of disaster. Had we gone that route, our gravy train would have reached the end of
the line by now. We’re both still a little too softhearted when it comes to employees and the occasional venture with friends,
but for the most part we’ve been able to separate our feelings from our finances.
School Yourself
I also made a point of educating myself on the subject of personal wealth. A lot of us weren’t raised to know why one type
of savings account is better than another. Shakim and I got on-the-job training. Life has been our college, and sometimes
we had to learn the hard way. But if we’d been more proactive about getting our hands on the right information, we could have
avoided a lot of pain.
I went to the bookstore, as I often like to do, and browsed the shelves. There weren’t too many offerings catering specifically
to women, which is why I decided to write this chapter. Somehow, money isn’t supposed to be something women worry about. Butone title did catch my eye: Suze Orman’s
The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom
. Several captions in the table of contents spoke to me. I started reading it right there in the bookstore. She writes about
all kinds of things that never even occurred to me, but made perfect sense. Even the fact that you should keep all the bills
nicely folded and organized
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