The Hardest Bet
I spent decades inside environments navigating brutal competition, evolving legislation, financial partnerships, and relentless pressure for YOY growth. Too often, the answer became reducing human beings to line items. Salaries and customer burden were quietly compressed because it guaranteed outcomes. Every decision justified by a spreadsheet because numbers will go up if you take from others, especially from areas that should remain untouched.
And to be fair, it works.
If your goal is finding margin quickly, reducing investment in people is one of the most predictable levers available. The problem is it rarely creates the kind of organization anyone actually wants to build.
The truth is, it's hard to bet on people.
People are unpredictable. They require trust, patience, coaching, and most importantly, vulnerability from leadership. Not every return shows up on next quarter's report.
The question to ask yourself is, what feeds your strategy most? Extracting from your people or investing in them?
For me, investing in people is far more grounded in the reality of operating a small to medium business and understanding how dramatically it impacts cost over time. You still build lean, scalable systems, but without stripping people of ownership or purpose. It means understanding how people actually live and move inside your strategy. Placing leaders together who challenge each other. Teaching teams how their work connects to the movement of the organization. Involving the people closest to the problems in refining the systems themselves.
Show them the numbers.
Talk honestly about hard seasons.
Put people on teams they never imagined they belonged on.
Trust them with context instead of simply assigning tasks.
When someone understands their influence, their standards change. Accountability becomes internal instead of imposed. The way they communicate, solve problems, support customers, and carry themselves becomes intentional because they see themselves inside the mission.
The front end investment is heavier. It takes longer. It requires belief in people before the return is obvious. It requires leadership willing to deliver to them before expecting them to deliver back.
But the return will change you.
Retention improves
Leadership develops internally
Recruiting becomes easier
Teams become more agile
Customers feel the difference
Communities become stronger
The most interesting part is that the decision often best for EBITDA is also the one with the strongest impact on people. Better leaders, better careers, and positive socioeconomic impact. Those outcomes are rarely discussed in the same room, but they remain deeply connected.
The most sustainable path to profit for small and medium businesses is through people. Just not in the way most organizations think.
And for the accountants reading this, I'm sorry. Not sorry. I know your stomach just turned.