Say out loud that a business owner should get rich from his own business and watch the reaction. Selfish. Greedy. Exploiting people.
Meanwhile you’re the one doing 70 hours a week, paying everyone else first, carrying every ounce of the risk. Nobody sends a card for that.
Let me be blunt. Costs are up, taxes are up, and employees cost more than they ever have. The maths that just about worked five years ago is quietly killing businesses now.
The No Bullshit Version
- Costs are up, taxes are up, and employees cost more than at any point in your working life. More work, less profit. That’s how businesses die.
- Good people exist. That was never the argument. The argument is that most of what you pay people to do shouldn’t be done by a person anymore.
- Email replies, quote creation, invoice reminders, report writing, booking calls, chasing payment – none of it needs a human in 2026.
- Every unnecessary person isn’t just a wage. It’s meetings, mistakes, training, holidays, drama, politics and opinions, all funded by you.
Employees are angry.
The torches are out, the pitchforks are sharpened.
Apparently, yours truly is a selfish basturd for even suggesting business owners should get rich from the business they’ve built.
Disgusting behaviour.
How dare you prioritise putting your kids through school when Dave from accounts needs a boys’ week in Benidorm.
Yet, when the business owner works 70 hours a week…
Pays everyone else first…
Carries all the risk, the responsibility, the stress…
Nobody gives a rat’s arse about that.
“That’s just the way it is, mate.”
And fair enough.
You chose this.
So did I.
But that also means you get to choose how you run the thing.
And right now…
Rome is burning.
Costs are up. Taxes are up.
And employees cost more than ever.
Meaning more work for less profit.
And this is how businesses die.
Now, I’m not saying good people don’t exist.
They do.
But a lot of the work you’re paying people to do should not be done by people anymore.
Not basic email replies.
Not quote creation.
Not invoice reminders.
Not report writing.
Not booking calls.
Not payment chasing.
Not turning one idea into five pieces of content.
Not sending the same “just circling back” email circle jerk.
In 2026, this stuff should happen automatically…
Without a human.
Because every unnecessary person in your business is not just a wage.
It’s meetings… mistakes… training… holidays… drama… politics… opinions.
Your business is not a government-funded employment scheme.
It’s not a nursery for adults with lanyards.
Will some people call that selfish?
Yes.
But they’re not the ones lying awake at 3am wondering how payroll gets covered.
In this game, when you’ve built the thing Y-O-U get to decide:
Keep feeding the payroll beast and slowly starve… Or swim in profit while Rome burns.
Why do employees cost more than they used to?
Because the bill was never just the salary. It’s employer’s NI, pension, holiday, sick pay, and a government that treats your payroll like its own revenue stream. Stack rising wages on top of rising taxes and you get the same work for less profit every single year. That’s not a wobble, that’s the direction of travel.
What work should a small business stop paying people to do?
Basic email replies. Quote creation. Invoice reminders. Report writing. Booking calls. Chasing payment. Turning one idea into five pieces of content. If a task follows the same steps every time, it doesn’t need a human in 2026 – it needs a system.
Is it selfish to cut staff so the owner earns more?
Some will say so. They’re not the ones awake at 3am working out how payroll gets covered. Your business is not a government-funded employment scheme and it was never a nursery for adults with lanyards. You carried the risk, so you get to decide how the thing runs.
Does automating the work make the business worse?
Usually the opposite. A system doesn’t phone in sick, doesn’t need a one-to-one, doesn’t have an opinion about the new invoicing process and doesn’t disappear for three weeks in August. It does the same job to the same standard every time, at a fraction of the cost of a body.
What To Do Next
If you want the full playbook – the exact method hundreds of UK men have used to hit £1 million without a payroll dragging them under – start with my best-selling book. It’s here on Amazon
