Principle 3 is very important to us and is one of the motivators behind this project. We want to be a family of giving. This is not limited to just our money but also in our time, support, talents, etc... As mentioned in our Guiding Principles, giving is an indicator of a person’s character. As this relates to the 100 Million Cents Project, every transaction that puts us over our step goal involves us giving away the excess CENTS. We want to continually give our CENTS away while we earn it. It is easy for people to say they will start giving money away once something else happens. You know what we’re talking about. People say things like, “Once I get promoted I will start giving” or “I need to get out of debt first”.  We’ve been there and understand the thinking. But with this project, we are planning on changing our tune; giving should be a part of everything we do.

Do you know what sandbagging as a sale's term is? When a sales person has made their quota, earned all their bonuses, and received all the other rewards available to them that year, they push off any new deals until the following year. They do this because landing another deal, after they have received all their rewards, does not benefit them anymore. Closing that last deal does not get them closer to a quota, they cannot earn any more bonuses, and they have dried up their rewards. Sure, that deal gives them a commission but they don’t ‘need’ it this year. They would rather sit idly until the next year, when they can close that deal in the first month, when it matters. By holding off on that one deal, they start the year closer to their next quota, bonus, and other rewards. Sandbagging also work for reps who know they will not make quota even when the deal they're working on closes. Therefore, they will wait until the next year to close it for the same reasons mentioned above.

For the company, this is not a good practice, All the money that can be brought in for a calendar year is important even if that means the sales rep does not get anything extra for it. For the company, bonuses depend on total revenue and profit, and every closed deal is vital to the operations of the company. There arises a conflict between the motivations of the sales rep and the needs of the business when a sales rep starts to hold back their deals. In essence, sandbagging stunts the growth of the organization.  

The 100 Million Cents Project is the organization, we are the sales reps, and we have been sandbagging.

While working our Step Goals, we have found ourselves needing only a couple dollars here or there to make the goal. As principle 3 reads, if we need $10 to complete step 13, and the last transaction give us $13, we must give the excess $3 away. That makes us happy and is all fine when the excess is relatively small. What happens when all we need is $10 to finish step 14 ($40 - $80) and the last transaction brought in $100? Following the step goal, we would need to give away $90 but that’s more than the entire sum of the money we have earned to date. What are we to do? We sandbag and it is not beneficial for our step goals. Instead of selling that item for $100 we will find something else to sell, with a smaller price, to get past the step then we will sell that big ticket item once it really counts towards the new step goal.

We had a long spirited discussion about this problem. Although the issue at hand is relatively small now, what happens when were at step 22, need $500, and the last transaction brings in $6000? Giving the excess $5500 away is really awesome but how does it help us get to the next goal if we keep giving away everything we have earned? Essentially, we will end up giving so much at the ends of the goal that all the work it took to make that money feels wasted.

We know how this may sound to some people. We know that it sounds like we are trying to give as little as possible. That is not what we are saying. We love to give and that is why we baked it into our project. What we are learning is that too much giving can halter us from giving even more in the future. It can stifle progress to the next step goal and that means it will take longer to give again.

From step 15 forward, at the end of each step goal, we will give away 5% of the total CENTS in our possession. At every step goal, we will be giving twice as much as the previous step goal, and in some cases, more than double.  

As an example: At step 15 ($80-$160), if we end the step goal with $160 in our CENTS, we will give away $8 (5% of $160). Then, we will start working towards Step 16 ($160-320). If, at the end of step 16, we have $360 in our CENTS, we will give away $18 (5% of $360).

In the end, we will have given away 10% of the total project once we accomplish step 28. That's a lot of CENTS and that is one of the reasons we are doing this project. The Guiding Principles page has been updated to reflect the change. Also, keep going to the Giving page to see how much we have given so far.

We are so very excited about this project and appreciate you following our Progress. 

All the items above sold today. The ladder shelving unit was given to us by a friend for this project; we painted it up and sold it for $30. The two items on the right are the chalkboards we made with the materials bought, as described in yesterday's post. We sold the pair for $20, meaning we made our money back with a little profit.

We're going to take the rest of our chalkboard materials and make more chalkboards to sell. It is our hope that this will prove profitable for the next couple of steps as we try to figure out what to do next.

Were done with step 14 of 28 steps! That means we are halfway to completing 100 Million Cents! Ok, so we're not halfway to $1,000,000. In fact, we're sitting at $80 and still have a very long way to go. But life is all about perspective, isn't it?  From our point of view, it is encouraging to know that each step completed, from this point forward, means we have accomplished more steps in the past than what we have remaining. It's a small win but we'll take it!