Running your own business, how do you stay sane! :-)

paddyrg

sassyblue wrote: »

paddyrig, good idea about the freebies but this is breakdown maintenance so as and when required, if l could incorporate that somehow it may be worth thinking about....

In which case the retainer idea might have more legs ;-) Good luck with it - we're all right behind you!

heretolearn_2

Staff - get the right people in the right role. We used to hang on and on to people who weren't working out, giving them training, support, 'time', etc etc etc. Learned our lesson the hard way. Now if people aren't right, they go pretty quickly and we try again with someone new. You are wasting your time if you are trying to get a square peg to fit in a round hole, and you have no real idea how people will work out until they are in place. No matter how fantastic they are on paper and at the interview, they can still turn out to be crap.

Attitude is worth so much more than experience/qualifications. We have no problem investing time and money in training someone who has the right attitude. If the attitude isn't there, it doesn't matter how 'good' they are in theory. Right now we've got a couple of key members of staff who came in with less experience/lower qualifications than previous people but they are the best we've had. They work really hard, they are nice to get along with and they genuinely take an interest and care about our clients and our firm. They come forward with ideas and suggestions. They make improvements. They are making the most of the training and experience we can offer them. It's win win. In the past we've had experienced/higher qualified people whose ambition was to get away with surfing on the internet for as long as possible...or working out how to get paid the maximum for doing the minimum possible work. Or just want to twist their jobs into doing only what they enjoy doing instead of what needs to be done.

If you are having real issues with staff, try to resolve them, but don't be afraid to say 'this isn't working' and start again.

nathand_2

paddyrg wrote: »

Can you do a re-org to divide and conquer, help the guys recognise their positions a bit better. Maybe take the talky one and make him a 'team leader' of some sort - but his pay is conditional on the team performance, incentivising him to pull his finger out. It would also help distance you from the team enough for them to realise you are management and focus on customer management.

Your other two points were good but I strongly disagree with this. Making the 'talky' one the team leader will leave the other employees feeling unappreciated. Their peer who they recognise as under-performing has been promoted.

The person who believes they are able to run the company better than you is actually the person, if any, should get a better position. They're the one presenting ideas, a new way of thinking. Motivating employees can be difficult but that employee will be up for a challenge.

paddyrg

nathand wrote: »

Your other two points were good but I strongly disagree with this. Making the 'talky' one the team leader will leave the other employees feeling unappreciated. Their peer who they recognise as under-performing has been promoted.

The person who believes they are able to run the company better than you is actually the person, if any, should get a better position. They're the one presenting ideas, a new way of thinking. Motivating employees can be difficult but that employee will be up for a challenge.

Fact is I don't know the people involved, and was using the 'talky one' as an example - might work out, or another might be better as you say. Good point well made, etc. It is the divide and conquer bit that is the core of my point, and the distancing of the OP from the gang. I would be cautious about automagically putting the 'knows best' one in that position as it could actually weaken the posters position if 'knows best' creates a feifdom, which is entirely possible. So it is impossible to choose based on a forum post!

And it created an excuse to get the talky one onto a pay structure to make them work more seriously. I'd be half-inclined to lose one of the team as an awakener, but with all the complexities around redundancies etc., trying an underperformer in a new role with a new incentive structure may have legs (they may actually flourish - or at least be easier to get rid of if they don't as they'll starve themselves out on basic pay if set up right if they don't raise their game).

blymi

Aaah, sanity is not an option when you're self employed

I've just read a book called 'The E-Myth (Revisited)'. And it is aimed specifically at the self employed who've just got to that stage of employing a few people and beginning to go crazy with it. The first half will make you feel better, if nothing else. The second half is a little too 'American' for my liking, but all its points are valid. Overall, well worth a read - you'll really get a few 'that's me!' moments.

nickj_2

with customers if you can get by without the ones that give you hassle then let someone else have them , they are not worth the hassle . i have 3 that i've done work for who i won't be going back to , one was a friend , who , despite me working in the trade for over 25 years apparently didn't know as much as him , my last one was last year , i priced up some work for him , i'd done loads of work previously and he'd always been really pleased with what i'd done , however he sent me a note saying my price was too much , as it happened i spent the summer doing work 5 other houses near his , whilst i was doing one he pulled up in his top of the range range rover ,having just spent the weekend on his luxury yatch and basically told me that i must have had a mad moment when i worked out his price . as i get about 99% of the work i price up i reckon my prices are usually there or there abouts , sometimes if i think i have overpriced i do give a bit of discount which always goes down well .
luckily for me , the bloke he got to do his work made a right pigs ear of it ....never mind