MAKING YOUR MILES COUNT Robert D. Scheper
Know the environment of carrying debt Last weekend my good friend had the occasion to operate a skid steer. He’s a land developer and asked the road builder he hired (a friend of his) if he could use the skid steer to clear a little bush trail on the lot at the end of the road. He knows how to operate the equipment but is not a “professional”. It was 2 pm on Friday and the road crew were off early. He was all alone. While taking down a small tree (2-3 inches), the branch caught between the arm and the body of the skid steer. By sheer fluke (1/ million) the branch bent around and into the arm where a hydraulic hose was held. The branch pinched the line and restricted the flow of fluid. A sensor tripped and shut the hydraulic system down while flashing the yellow warning lights in the cab. With the hydraulic system disabled he couldn’t lift the arm to release the pressure and reactivate the system. A classic Catch 22. What made the situation more complicated was that the door would not open more than an inch… because the arm was too high. Finally, and not the least of his problems... his cell phone was 100 feet away in his truck. We often find ourselves alone in situations that can easily be defined as innocent. We convince ourselves that there was “nothing we could have done to prevent it”. We 10 • OVER THE ROAD
stand as a victim of random circumstances. Who can foresee random events and the consequential falling dominoes? Random events such as... a Pandemic. How many people will lose their businesses and even their homes, cars, cottages due to a virus? Nobody could have predicted our current circumstances back in October 2019. However, we don’t need to know future events to be prepared for most of them. I have been advising clients financially for several decades. Businesses have inherent risks that cannot be predicted beyond a moderate level of accuracy. But too often I see new operators purchasing new cars, boats, and toys after only six months as an operator. Over leveraging (too much debt) creates a situation where even the slightest shift of circumstances can cause negative domino consequences. They assume risks based on unprofessional assumptions, “how yesterday was... tomorrow will be”. One miscalculation and they are locked alone in a metal vault. Far too often I see drivers and operators make debt choices that must be slowly repaid over a lonely decade. Yesterday I sat with a client for nearly two hours. He was considering what his options
OCTOBER 2021
