Now that you have decided that this business model is right for you, you might need some guidelines. These are a few general rules that you must follow to properly run a Purgatory company:
1. Pay wages below the market average (at least 30% below). It is better if you pay a mixed wage (fixed + incentives), because you push the fixed cost even lower. It is very important to tie incentives to a high level of sales, high enough that you will feel comfortable enough to pay them once your employees achieve this goal (if they ever do).
2. Develop an obsession for details and micromanagement. Always give specific instructions about how a task should be done, then write it down (use a task manager software like outlook) and follow the execution of each task exhaustively.
3. Program frequent meetings to review these tasks. Do not let anyone interrupt the meeting until you are done reviewing each task. You should get very angry if a tasks is left aside by your employees, and you should always ask for deadlines on each and every single task. Once you are done with your tasks list, ask if there are more matters worth of following up. Write the ones that you consider pertinent, and program another meeting to review them all once again. Never erase a task from your list, even if your employees swear by their mothers that it has been completed. Wait until you can verify it by yourself. Always store your completed tasks for future reviewing.
4. Use your employees' sins against them. Remember that your employees were picked up from Hell (they would not had accepted the job if they came from Heaven). Never trust them and always point at them every mistake they make. Use their sins against them: humiliate the prideful, demotivate the gluttons, confront the wrathful, blame the vain for the slothful's omissions and do not let the slothful go on vacations.
5. Every once in a while say something that keeps them on their toes. Something like "I am expecting a greater effort from your part" or "You should look for a better solution". Then dismissed the person before he can argue. It works better if you say it as you pass by, or if you say it to someone who just interrupted a meeting. Be sure to send the person away with the arguments still stucked in his head. You will know that this strategy worked out if the employee lost sleep thinking in what you told him.
6. Ambiguity. Even if you ask your employees for "crystal clear" answers, never, and I mean never ever, give a "crystal clear" answer yourself when talking about economic matters. Do not share how much the company earns or how much you earn. Keep the information fragmented, so that no one sees the full picture but yourself. Incentives must be hard to calculate and subjected to plenty conditions. It is better if every department has slighty different goals, this will cause friction, prevent unity and give you another reason for complianing in meetings.
7. Impossible results. Always demand impossible results: better, faster and cheaper. Do not settle for anything. If your employees happen to achieve a goal, congratulate (a little) and ask for more. Always look for the black spot, the bean in the rice, the fly in the white wall, the stain in the silver lining ( you get the point). If you feel like you need to give a motivational speech, always finish it with a "but..."
8. Never tell your employees that they are in a Purgatory. Every once in a while speak about the bright future that the company has and how this future guarantees stability and may impact their income (be as ambiguos in the income part as possible).
9. Refuse any type of debt. A Purgatory can not subsist if you put debt on its financial statement. Debt will put an extra stress on yourself, and (God forbids) you may be forced to depend upon your employees. Debt makes you want to sell more, which makes you more dependent on your sales force. If your employees detect this weakness, they will ask for more money and better working conditions, and your Purgatory model will be doomed. Also, debt will make you grow faster and you may loose control of your micromanagement. Never loose any type of control. Purgatories must grow slowly ( way below the industry's average) to secure permanence.
10. Be disciplined. Remember, you chose permanence over greatness, do not loose that goal. You will be subjected to many temptations and you may get confused once in a while, thinking that you can have both. NO WAY, this is not the USA, this is Latin America, and nothing great survives more than two presidential periods (unless you are hand picking every president). Refuse greatness in every chance: refuse lectures, refuse fancy offices, refuse to have a great logo or a catchy tagline, refuse to show off, refuse to change the world, refuse to be an example, and so on.
11. Do no read any more articles about business. Specially if they come from a First World Author. None will fit your company and you will be wasting your precious time.
Lastly, do not expect me to congratulate you if you make that Purgatory company of yours everlasting. There is not anything substantial in it.
Thanks for reading
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