Earlier today I was part of a conversation regarding Disney possibly purchasing some parts of Fox Entertainment and a comment was made that “they are only in it for the money.” This reminded me back to a different conversation I had regarding an online video game that I play. In that, a comment was made that certain services the game manufactures offer should be free since players are already paying a monthly subscription for the game and “the company is only in it for the money”. Well duh.
Of course, there in it for the money, why else would they be in it. I mean as a young business you shoot for the absolutely highest profit you can. You try to minimize costs and maximize productivity because every dollar counts. So, if this logic is true for small business, why would it not be true for large ones? If you go to a business to say buy a cake and you ask for the most basic cake with no pictures and just single-color frosting, you are most likely going to be charged the lowest rate. However, if you ask for pictures and graphics and decorations, you will be charged a higher rate as they are now having to do more work to accommodate your request. Does this mean they are only in it for the money? Sure, because they know if they do more work for the same amount of money, their business will ultimately fail. If a business is successful, they are successful because they didn’t give things away for free. This is not to say they cannot be philanthropic with their money but it also means they get to control how and when they are going to give money away to protect the business most importantly. After all, a broke business gives nothing away as they have nothing.
Simply because a business charges you for a service or because that business engages in the purchase of another business does not necessarily make them greedy or bad. When Facebook purchased Oculus Rift nobody said Facebook is only it for the money. That was a given. Of course, they were in it for the money. They saw a product they could market and sell and decided it was in their best interest to do so. What about if it were your business, after you’ve reached a certain milestone, would you say well now let’s give things away for free to our customers. That makes no sense. How would you answer to your investors with that mindset? They want to make money too. You might be familiar with the company Bombas. Their schtick is that for every pair of socks you purchase, they donate a pair to charity. This is a noble cause and I applaud them for this, however if you’ve ever been to their website, you’d see that a single pair of socks typically run about 12 dollars. That is far higher than the average pair of socks you’d buy in Wal Mart or Target. Why? Bombas knows that in order for them to maintain their ability to donate a pair of socks, they have to charge more for the ones that are purchased. They have to maintain a profit or they won’t be donating anything. This isn’t greed. Its simple logic. The sole purpose of a business is to make money.
Cory
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