Question for those that own their own business

[Seanie Mac]

1.) Better to take Walmart strategy, overstaff and underpay to avoid overtime and the extra taxes

2.) stay loyal to the few people by letting them work more at fair to over market value

staff right now only includes 5 regs including me, and 2 that only work Sunday which is a 7 hour day

personally I'm with option 2, but lately been some probs with people wants days off together and have a girl and guy who are now dating and it's just ****ing annoying

[THE_ROOKIEEE]

Always good to have a few key players to run the ship correctly.... 4 Including urself....then hire 3 latins that will do the work for a crew of 5, the walmarts way.....hire and fire those till u can find another key player......

also.... Monthly bonuses are a good way to cheat the books on overtime overhead costs....

As for the couple.... Its they can keep issues at home and not bring them to jobsite,then its all good..... If not be careful how u get rid of them

[Boris Karloff]

I'm not for hiring cheap labour. Hire according to the job. I'm a tradesman btw...commercial store is same story. If you sell highend stuff go for pros--it costs more but less worries among other things.

[mrmarket]

Wal-Mart strategy works because they are so large the cogs in the machine are interchangeable. If you read Sam Walton's autobiography he actually takes the second option while building up the empire through the 5 and dimer stores with the same people he feels competent with for many years.

[Dr. Jack]

This seems like a bit much for a newspaper route Sean.

j/k

[dave nz]

Reminds me of when I was last on holiday and a local pointed out to me on a hill a mansion in the distance. With more land than I've ever seen. I asked him how the guy made his money. His response, toliet paper. Bottom line if your business deals with a necessity in life, you are off to a good start.

[ParrotHead]

What kind of business

[cook county capper]

I pay people over market value, but they realize that I won't put up with one dam thing. I also only hire people in the 21-25 range. These people are usually hungrier to start out and you can motivate these workers by paying them a great wage.

I try to give people a great start to their future by teaching them everything that I was never taught in life. I've had 6 workers move on to successful careers (so far) and one stopped working to raise a family.

This is coming from a guy who started his own business AFTER working for Target, where I was overworked and underpaid. I had one of those life moments on 7/4/2006 when everyone was watching fireworks outside of the store except for Logistics. Came outside with my co-worker, and got yelled at for not having the backroom ready for the truck. I went from working 100 mph to a snail's pace, took 2 trips to Vegas with vacation/sick/PTO hours, called off 4 times, and on my last day of work, the first day of the NFL season, I took ALL my Logistics team to BW3 for the whole noon slate.

You want unmotivated workers = treat em' like poop and underpay them.
You want your life to be easy = treat em' like family and pay them fairly.

[Romanowski]

a lot of businesses have the right product, marketing etc. But fail because they arent lean

if the product is priced right, you are reaching the market most interested, good chance to sell, will grow

but those profits arent used efficiently to grow the business, the business was close to blowing up, but lacked the capital/cash flow to continue

So in reference to your question, you only keep on the minimum # of staff necessary, to sustain growth, no extra fluff for office morale

In the beginning you gotta treat it like lean manufacturing even if its services or any other industry, or it will never get off the ground, unless you have money to burn

JMO

[grzftbl]

Originally Posted by cook county capper

Logistics. ready for the truck. Logistics

Well said post (all of it, lol).

2nd off, what do you do? I've been brokering freight on my own for 7 yrs now, 12 yrs total.

[cptkirk321]

and it's just ****ing annoying

I once had an exboss say to me he loved being in the people business except for the fact he had to deal with people, LOL!! Now I never truly understood that statement until I was the one in charge and what he was saying was that whether you are a 2 person operation or a 200 person operation there are no perfect answers and they are all ***ing annoying. What you have to decide is what works best for your business model and what you are trying to accomplish with what you have now. If you are looking at building something then the approach you have right now IMO is the better of the two options, build a trusted nucleus, keep things as lean as possible but rewarding for the people you employ. One way I have found to reduce costs is to create a profit share program within the group. The more the company profits by keeping its costs down the more that goes into the pot to split, in a way they now have skin in the game. Another way and it is really an inexpensive way to up production is by putting goals together for a week or a month and if those targets are hit they get rewarded with a free lunch, or a gift certificate for a dinner out with their significant other. Most people throughout their worklife don't really get acknowledged for doing things well at work but do get acknowledged when they do something wrong. Something like a dinner gift certificate would cost you $100/person that would be $500/month. What I have found in my business life is the more motivated your workers are the more they care and the harder they work and when this happens alot of the aggravations you may face tend to be put on the backburner.

[cook county capper]

Originally Posted by grzftbl

Well said post (all of it, lol).

2nd off, what do you do? I've been brokering freight on my own for 7 yrs now, 12 yrs total.

I'm in the medical field doing data entry/customer service work.
I can do the work of 6 people, for 3 businesses, with a staff of 2 people.
They can even grade stuff for Dr Jack when i run out of time.

On the side, I own vending machines (ChiBob = that's where I get silver coins mostly, not owing laundromats), charging people $0.90 for a 20 ounce pop. I take people's bets on opposites, charging a flat $1.00 to take both bets at +100, so both people have no juice. (ChiBob was right about this before) And, the biggest thing I am working on, I am helping people save money by helping them not waste it. This is big guys, not many people realize how much money they truly waste in a year.

I used to stay out all night partying every night, family gave 2 craps, and I finally realized, I'm going to be a nobody in 5 years. Now I try to save as much money so I can retire Super Mark Duper early with my lady.

Are you freighting stuff down I-90/I-94 to Illinois? When I used to go see my friend in Billings, I used to take that US-212 shortcut. I know you've brought it up, but those Indians are CRAZY in that stretch.

[ParrotHead]

CCC, how did you get started with the vending machine operation. Always seen that as an investment to make, just not sure how well it would work in my area with the smaller area and every business having vending machines with hardly any new businesses/buildings going up. Profit any good for just being a side venture.

In a family business now, always wanted to go in to the bar business as a side as well since the family business will take up most of my time. I just dont have the will power yet (24 yrs old) to not go out on the weekends or when some thing fun comes up not to do it.

[grzftbl]

Originally Posted by cook county capper

Are you freighting stuff down I-90/I-94 to Illinois? When I used to go see my friend in Billings, I used to take that US-212 shortcut. I know you've brought it up, but those Indians are CRAZY in that stretch.

LMAO on US-212...yes, dey nuts.

Don't do too much around here, what I do out of here is westbound.

Ship a lot out of the Chicago area. Clinton, WI., Spring Grove, IL, EGV, IL., West Allis, WI., and throughout IN, MI, OH, PA, WV, NJ...all into Texas.

[Kacknballz]

Originally Posted by THE_ROOKIEEE

Always good to have a few key players to run the ship correctly.... 4 Including urself....then hire 3 latins that will do the work for a crew of 5, the walmarts way.....hire and fire those till u can find another key player......

Just say Mexican dude!