:: Find Saipan ::

Its Tuesday, but it sure feels like Monday, today I am going to make a decision to shut down one of our sub-companies in Saipan, that has been losing money for the last four quarters. It will affect the lives of about 10 or so employees, 7 Philippine contract workers, 1 Chinese contract workers and 2 IR workers. Some of them have been with the company for 20 plus years. It’s a hard choice but, for our company to survive we have to make due and cut back some costs. I been thinking about this for a long time, but current financial situation has giving me no other alternatives in this matters. Now days it seems like a daily struggle in Saipan, just trying to endure…. life

When I got back, to Saipan and took over some of the day-to-day operation of our company three years ago. I was amazed at how this small company was making ends meet. With no modern business practice for say it was running its day-to-day operation with one manager at hand. I figured, I would modernize the company, clean up the record keeping, update and consolidate the bank account. I installed accounting with QuickBooks, install a point of sales system for the retail sales floor, got a line of credit from the bank and a company credit card with Continental Airline Miles.. etc etc I believed, I was going to turn the company into a clean mean machine. Now looking back and thinking to myself, I may have done more harm then good. Maybe the company wasn’t ready for this much change or maybe I just messed up big time. It’s hard to judge what you have done by yourself. I guess, the old saying, “if it ate broken don’t fix it” has some merit after all in the modern business world. Granted I wouldn’t call Saipan’s business practices modern by any means.

Still, here I am sitting at my desk trying to figure out were it went all wrong. Was the large investment we did just around winter of 05 the breaking point. Or was it the expansion we made last summer the cause. At first I tried to lay the blame to the current economical crises at hand in Saipan. But in the end, other companies are making due and moving along, why can’t we. Is our market share that low, that we just don’t have the pool of customers. Are the services we provide that poor, that customer on Saipan is turning away from us, to cheaper alternatives? Or is it because of my ideas and me. I don’t have the answer to the questions, and right now I am at a lost what to do.

I hate life… in general, I despise responsibilities, I feel I have a duty to up hold the family business. At the same time I know we can’t continue to subsidize the earnings from other department that is turning a profit. I long for the days in college, where all I had to worry about on a Tuesday morning is, if I am going to lecture today or if I should do laundry or just Febreze it. Life does come at you fast doesn’t it?

So wish me luck today, I am waiting for our 2nd quarter expense report and I am going to be making the finial decision. The choice I make will have great consequence, granted not that great in the grand scheme of things, but families will be hurt in my process. I hate that.. I really do hate that. I hope this is not .. one of my other mistakes I’ll be making here in Saipan.

I wish I could just Febreze this one and sleep.