This sums up my thoughts completely. People with intelligence, motivation, and ability to relate to people are going to start their own thing or find someone that compensates them appropriately for that rare skillset. I wonder if estimators would stick around if they had the ability to buy into the business and become a part owner.
Adventures with Lyrical: Buying a Business (REPOST)
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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I'll say it again, the only long term solution is profit sharing/bonus and growth. Give someone the opportunity to make a ton of money and they'll stay with you long enough while it's on a growth curve, otherwise they'll ultimately not be fully vested or they won't stay long enough that you'll always be retraining a new person, even if you pay really well from a salary. Lyrical has stated he's had people 'go out on their own' then ultimately fail, but regardless of the smile on his face, most of the time people are retarded and burn bridges meaning that he can't hire them back (or wouldn't want to).
There's people in many sectors who are very experienced but don't want the overhead of dealing with a business from $$ to HR to liabilities who will work for good change, provided they can write their own paycheck with good work. Doesn't mean you need to give them 'shares' or control or anything, but you do have to pay for what you want.
There's people in many sectors who are very experienced but don't want the overhead of dealing with a business from $$ to HR to liabilities who will work for good change, provided they can write their own paycheck with good work. Doesn't mean you need to give them 'shares' or control or anything, but you do have to pay for what you want.
Maybe I'm bad at business. But I think the most successful business model that works is to profit share with employees. The guy who replaces you should be like 10% of profits. Then split 10% amoungst the crew based on longevity etc. You keep 80%. This allows you to actually step away from the company. Anyone who is smart would love that deal. Who wouldn't want 60k or 80k salary plus 10% of profit. They also own part of the company essentially with 0 risk, and it's sweet so they don't want to strike out on their own.
Meanwhile most business owners think. OMG. I'm not giving up 20% of my profits! I worked hard for it etc. The reality is you'll give up that 20% either way. Be it from employees fucking you, or down time while training the 10th new guy this year etc. Also how much money are you giving up by not building the next business?
It can't be that hard to find someone offering a good salary, then showing them the profit last year was X. You get 10% of that. With X being the expected growth each year. You accomplish that, you retire very rich. You don't accomplish that, I will find someone who will.
Meanwhile most business owners think. OMG. I'm not giving up 20% of my profits! I worked hard for it etc. The reality is you'll give up that 20% either way. Be it from employees fucking you, or down time while training the 10th new guy this year etc. Also how much money are you giving up by not building the next business?
It can't be that hard to find someone offering a good salary, then showing them the profit last year was X. You get 10% of that. With X being the expected growth each year. You accomplish that, you retire very rich. You don't accomplish that, I will find someone who will.
Unfortunately it's just not that easy. You are making a lot of assumptions about the individuals working for you, their forethought and business acumen. I can't count the times I've seen middle management put their short term gain (bonus) above what was best for the company long term. Even if the decision ultimately negatively impacted their bonus for the next year or two they would still do it without even realizing they were shooting themselves in the foot. Overworking employees, not purchasing required supplies, not performing maintenance on expensive equipment, selling product at a lower cost to hit revenue goals before year end, etc.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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This.
I too believe in profit-sharing as a motivational tool, but as Ortega pointed out there are definitely potential pitfalls you need to avoid. A book that I thought was a great read on the subject wasOwnership Thinking: How to End Entitlement and Create a Culture of Accountability, Purpose, and Profit: Brad Hams: 9780071772457: Amazon.com: BooksNot every aspect outlined in the book will be appicable across every industry, but definitly helped me revamp my bonus program to ensure growth.
Ordered the book. Been a while since I fell into the rabbit hole of business books. I need to space them out more as I tend to read 2-4 at once, then I forget ideas I wanted to implement.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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This is all very true. One of the biggest challenges I've had with my bonus program is that the employees start treating it like an entitlement. Rather than being motivated to perform better and examining their what went wrong when fall short of the set goals, they just become resentful when they are not awarded their bonus. One of the things that I've found very important is to give them the tools and authority (access to data) to track their own progress in real time.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Pay the guy appropriately and he won't attempt to steal your business on the side. I think whats going on with Lyrical is that he's probably paying the guys more than "market" where market is barely enough to live but it's more than the "other guys" pay, where conveniently none of these guys can hold on to any decent employees because they don't pay enough.
Hire a guy who is intelligent and pay him appropriately and see what happens. Then buy 3 more businesses and manage those and triple your income.
Or not, whatever.
Hire a guy who is intelligent and pay him appropriately and see what happens. Then buy 3 more businesses and manage those and triple your income.
Or not, whatever.
OU Ariakas
Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
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Brikker
Trump's Staff
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OU Ariakas
Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
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Cad
scientia potentia est
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Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
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You wish. Honestly, it went like a year with no one asking for updates, so I figured there wasn't any interest. And I was getting trolled too much in my own thread. Too many people telling me I'm doing it wrong that have never managed anything in their lives.
edit: no one posted in the thread for ten months. If you guys don't give a shit, I don't either.
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