Code of Honour

• Turnover is for the newspapers. The Family counts what’s left.
• Done a good turn? Name your price. Tomorrow is too late.
• A client’s gratitude lasts till evening. A contract lasts longer.
• Take and never give, and you’ll work until the first “no”.
• Know your number, or someone will work it out for you.
• Take your share so that the man doing the work gains by showing you all his takings.
• Which of the four doors? No answer means no plan, just a mood.
• Move the price last, once they can’t cook without you.
• One tin against ten years is simple arithmetic.
• A client bought for more than he’ll leave you after the cost of his orders is a loss paid in instalments.
• Fixed costs don’t ask what sort of month you had.
• A pretty forecast is honest about takings and hopeful about costs. Count it the other way round.
• The “new press” box gets filled while the old press still works.
• A good old thing beats a new one that does the same job.
• Never skimp on what keeps people loyal.
• Profit on paper won’t pay the supplier on the thirtieth day.
• Pay on the spot and you get the best price, and respect into the bargain.
• Compound interest hates being eaten.
• Doubled in a month is a lie or a crime. Usually both.
• Other people’s money makes a business louder: the good one better, the bad one worse.
• Borrow against what will repay the debt even in a lean year.
• Cheap money from your own people names its price later.
• A return without risk is a daydream with a calculator.
• An incredible return is somebody’s pocket.
• What’s put in is gone. Count only the next dollar.