CHAPTER XXXVIII
A LOGICAL PROFIT-SHARING PLAN
I had pledged myself to a profit-sharing plan with my small staff for the year beginning June 1, since my fiscal year would end with the last day of May.
Think of it! By the end of May I would have finished my first year in business. When I looked back at the year's experiences, I realized that I surely had learned a lot in that short time. I had learned more each month than I had learned in all the time I was a clerk. The reason was, I suppose, because I had to learn, whereas, while a clerk, I had had neither the inclination to learn nor the encouragement. I think bosses make a mistake in not encouraging their people to study the business.
Now, I want to tell about my profit-sharing plan. For almost two weeks I had been spending nearly every night with Jock McTavish, the accountant who had helped me out so much in the past. I had told him what I wanted, and we had worked out a plan between us. Jock was Scotch and old-fashioned. I sometimes called him glue fingers, because whenever he got his hand on money it stuck to him.
"Aw, weel, noo," said Jock, "dinna fash yersel', mon! Ye may talk aboot yer pheelantropy an' yer wantin' ta help yer fella creeters, but you maun ken that you canna be doin' it unless ye fir-rst get the baubees. When ye took o'er tha beesiness, ye planned tae sell thirty thousand dollars worth o' goods the fir-rst year, and on that sales quota ye planned expenses to be twenty per cent."
I nodded agreement.
"By tha end o' November," he continued, "or, in other wor-rds, at the end o' the half year, ye were $1,128.00 behind your quota."
"Yes," I said, "but we have caught that up."
"Ye've done gr-rand," said Jock. "Noo frae June o' last year to the end o' February ye hae doone $22,640.00, or $140.00 above your quota. This means that tha third quarter o' your fiscal year showed an excess over its quota o' $1,268.00, which, if ye had keppit oop tha same pace through aw' tha year, would have meant an excess above your quota o' $5,072.00."
"Wait a minute, Jock," I interrupted, "you're making my head go round with all those figures." And I took out my pencil and worked the figures.