Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom! So has been going on this week? We’ve been diligent about getting back to the gym after a few days of struggling with motivation to get there on top of everything else that is going on. Despite being sore and tired right now, I’m still extremely happy that I was able to get out and accomplish something, because that is what counts. We were at the gym yesterday and by the time it came to the cardio we were both ready to just call it there but I was adamant that we should at least do something. I may have only did the treadmill for about 10 minutes but I still did a bit of running because I was able to find that motivation to keep going on. I like to talk about these moments because I’m sure you see the same “influencers” out there who make it look so easy for them to workout (or whatever their niche is) but they do not talk about those times that they struggle and feel like giving up. The truth is that my reader(s) are like me and that means life is hard and too often we feel like failures because our lives do not seem as easy as those of the people we see online. So how I have tackled failures in my life this week? I was passed on a couple of jobs I applied for with no interviews, I go out and apply for more jobs. My blogs are not getting the traction I want, I research new ways on how to get them out there more. I haven’t got more podcasts up, I keep on preparing for more episodes and developing my release plan so that once I start they can keep on going. They say we learn more from our failures than our successes; while that is true, it is very easy for people to say who have succeeded more than many of us so it is not easy to hear. Rather than blaming ourselves and giving up, I think a better course of action is evaluating our support system and being able to ask for help, vent about our struggles, and come back more motivated than ever. Don’t have a strong support system? Than reach out to us at the Breakdown (we are on Facebook in addition to being here) and let us find support from one another.
Besides support, we can also support you by jumping in today’s Breakdown and I have to tell you, we have some pretty big updates from the Michael Scott Paper Company.
The morning started off the same as it has been, with a paper route. Having been in operation for about four weeks, the Michael Scott Paper Company has been performing their own deliveries in the early morning before even getting to the office. Michael starts the day going around and picking everyone up in a used van that they got (which seems to say “Hallelujah Church of Scranton” on the side in Korean). Given that this has been the norm, I find it funny that Pam and Ryan still are not prepared each morning, not even bringing their own coffee for the drive. Michael is always set to go, although this is likely because he kicks off the morning with a mug of milk and sugar. No coffee with that, only milk and sugar. Needless to say, these early morning deliveries to then work a full day at the office has been taxing on them and they decide it would be wise to hire a delivery guy.
They meet up with their accountant and he has to be the bearer of bad news, and that is that they are broke. He explains that their price point they are charging is so low they losing money instead of making it. Ryan tries to explain that he, with his business school knowledge, did the numbers himself and their business model becomes profitable with enough sales. The accountant explains that in a fixed cost pricing model this makes sense but he should have used a variable cost pricing model, which seems to fly over everyone’s heads.
Here I can make use of my business degree and break these down. A fixed cost price model has the price of the product at a set rate across the board which does not change regardless of factors such as how much is produced or sold. What the accountant is combining into this is fixed costs which are costs that a company pays on their end which remain the same and are unaffected based on how successful the company is. Common examples would be rent for an office space since that is set as the same each month. On the other side is the variable cost price model in which the price of the product can and will move based on market demand, competitor pricing, and changes on production/sales. Then we have variable costs which are costs a company pays that are affected based on how much the company makes, and this is where we have the problem. So Michael Scott Paper Company makes money as they take on mor clients. However, the more clients they take on they start to require more money to spend on needs for the company, such as looking at a delivery person. And that is just today because as they take on more clients they will continue to take on more costs which will wipe them out. If they had designed their company around a variable model, they would have predicted how much is necessary and would be able to accommodate those needs.
Devastated at the news of all of this, the Michael Scott Paper Company headed back to their office to grapple with this news. Their days are numbered and now they have to deal with the fact that they are once again facing uncertainty. This is all occurring without them having any inkling with how bad it is on the Dunder Mifflin side.
Charles is in a mild panic because their branch lost another client to Michael Scott and no one seems to have any strategy. So nervous is the company that even David Wallace from corporate comes to the office to strategize the situation. For him to have come all the way here for this, it says a lot about how worried they are. So besides Charles and David, they also bring in Jim and Dwight to come up with options. Jim suggests offering a temporary price reduction for returning companies. Certainly could work but there is still isn’t much incentive for companies to leave. We have Dwight’s idea of filling Michael’s office with a swarm of bees. Not sure what the end goal is as this could just keep them from working for maybe a few days while they get the office exterminated. And then we have David who admits that their only good offer is to see if they would accept a buyout. That is where Jim comes up as they send him on down to see if he could convince them to sitting down.
Cut to Jim letting the Michael Scott Paper Company know there is a buyout option because of how successful they have been. Interestingly, Jim is relaying this information to them after Pam already revealed to him the company was in trouble, which I think we all know what Jim is doing. Marching in like victors, Michael and his team return to Dunder Mifflin in an effort to turn the turntables (or whatever Michael was trying to say).
Negotiations were pretty tense, as these sorts of things often do. Before David could even give them their offer, Michael immediately rejects it. As he explains, you should never accept the first offer which seems to include not even listening to it. David’s second offer was for $12,000 which is also declined as being too low. David tries to tear Michael down knowing full well that they cannot be that profitable and do not have a ton of time. Michael comes in with one of this greatest moments of his entire career. He points out that there is a shareholder meeting coming up soon and David will be expected to explain why their most profitable branch is suddenly bleeding money. And this might lead them to thinking they need a better CFO at the helm. I think this was David had to admit that he underestimated Michael a little too much, and offered a buyout of $60,000. I thought for sure they would take it, as it seemed that they would and were serious about it. But Michael had another stroke of genius in him, and chose to renegotiate. His terms were to have his job back and to have Ryan and Pam return in sales. David is pretty against this, besides the fact that Ryan cost the company a great deal of money but this starts to look like a multimillion dollar buyout between salaries and benefits. But he knows he is stuck and needs to get this issue resolved quickly, so he caves and the Michael Scott Paper Company is successful.
This has been a wild ride and from a personal comment as a watcher of The Office, the Michael Scott Paper Company stories is among my all time favorite arcs and I wish it lasted longer. If you were as big of a fan as I was, maybe consider getting a Michael Scott Paper Company shirt!
I hope you enjoyed this Breakdown, and I hope you all have an amazing weekend! I’ll be working more on the blog and promise to have an a update on the podcast soon. I also am officially ready for autumn over here so I may be finding a chance to pop into Spirit Halloween and Home Goods for some Halloween decorations.
As always, I’ll see you around the Breakroom.
