letter from "the boss"

I am now and have always been an employee. Mainly because I never felt the drive needed to run my own business. In my opinion people who start businesses that thrive do so because they feel a need to do so. The business becomes their identity. The people who do it JUST for the money usually fail. Your business IS who you are. My uncle was a business owner. He worked six days a week, sixteen hour days his whole life. He almost never even took a vacation. He was also a very happy man who never wanted to be anything other than what he was. He died in his eighties but he never did "retire". He also left his children many millions of dollars and a thriving business.
I never wanted that. I like who I am. A miserable crumudgeon.

So many good points, on both sides. Someone else sent me the "boss" letter, which I agree with the BASIC theme, but in no way the threatening, griping delivery.

I think David B said, "But his complaint about small business risk takers getting the shaft, while the crooks get the bailout, has merit. It's not about management vs labor, it's about fair reward."

I'm a small business owner, 10 employees, under $3m, fairly large gross margin (only to say we incentivise well for 'producers') and a healthy - at the moment - net. My top guy makes almost 3 times what administrative makes. We all recognize the team commitment, much of the revenue-share is spread to non-producers since they participate in the whole.

David B went on to say...

"The government is my 50% partner - but only on the profit side. Losses are all mine. And if I want a bailout, or a loan from a bank, I have to put up 150% of what I want from them. Really makes a lot of sense."

Amen. We spend about $80,000 a month here staying in business; peanuts to many, but enough to me. If I went - say 90 days in the negative - it'd be lights out, and no funeral party for my business either.

This SOUNDS like I'm saying, "Let the failures fail" but the other side is who "wins" if they (the big failures) do? A tough one. God teaches new lessons every day, and I'm sure trying to learn.

Good to hear different viewpoints.

Ron I do agree with you 100% like I said the Europeans are taxed to death. Look at London, they want to make it so expensive to drive into London that you cant afford to do anything except use mass transit. Think that could happen here?? I do believe this is the greatest country on earth, how many other places let people have discussions along the lines we have here. No matter how much the media make it sound like the world hates us, how many people are dying to still come here!
Jeff

Jeff,

No doubt the systems in the world are leaning heavy toward tooo much Government .. I had a discussion at a party in Spain once with a group from Venezuala .. needless to say a was very distracted by the beautiful women ... Ok ! back to the point .. they talked about Bush this and Bush that ... I asked them ... why are you living here in Spain and not in Venezuela ? Then they started stuttering ... I said OHHHH Chavez ? Thats what I thought ... so dont ...I told them I dont want to here about BUSH ! " At least we have a Middle class!"

...and my Dutch friends state 90% of Holland was praying for Obama.

Who knows lets just hope a lot of good comes out of all of this .. and everyone reverts back to good morals, ethics, and hard work be kind to one another .. and we remain proud to be Americans ... and Canadians and lead the world by example.

Ron

How many successful business owners here show their employees "the fruits of their labors" ie:exotic cars, boats, homes...?
After most of you say no, explain why.

I often have office parties at my home. I drive my cat to the office and show it off to my employees just like I would to anyone else.

Why not? They have lots of stuff that I don't have - timeshares, country homes, hobbies and friends. And best of all they get four weeks off every year to enjoy it!

They take extra unpaid holidays whenever they want and work a daily schedule that fits their family life and their activities - not mine.

I have no problem showing them the fruits of my labors. I'm in the office before them and still there while they're on their 4th beer at home. I'm on pretty much 24/7 and live in a pressure cooker of my own design. They know it and I'm sure that none of them want to trade places with me.

I bail my employees out of divorces, breakups, legal problems and they depend on me to help their families out with whatever. I do this to keep them happy and productive. That's what an employer does.

Their only worry is that if the stress kills me, who will take care of them?

quote:

I bail my employees out of divorces, breakups, legal problems and they depend on me to help their families out with whatever. I do this to keep them happy and productive. That's what an employer does.

Can you use an unemployed Union Inside Wireman who still speaks a bit of my high school French?
Just kidding; I won't do Winters with snow. My eight years in Maryland were enough for this California Native.

Larry

AMEN-To what David B. just wrote! I ran my small business for 36+ years & finally got tired of all the BS. Early last year I closed down,(before the big crash,thankfully), sold my building,gave my employees several months of notice so it wouldn't be a suprise to them, & told them I was going to go get a REAL job where I could actually have some vacation time, sick time, unpaid leave, no more 24/7 worries, etc.,etc. Just applied for Social Security several months ago (best get what you can while it's still available)- 'ya, I'm older than most of you guys here. Now I'm thinking a part time job is an even better idea than full time. I'm looking forward to enjoying myself for a change!

quote:

I bail my employees out of divorces, breakups, legal problems and they depend on me to help their families out with whatever. I do this to keep them happy and productive. That's what an employer does.

Their only worry is that if the stress kills me, who will take care of them?

Can I come work for you too, David?

But seriously, I've been on both ends of this equation, and now as an employer I try to give my employees what I wanted when I was in their shoes. Respect, and the tools and opportunities they need to have an impact in their jobs. I want them to feel productive and to know they always have a say in their own job and a stake in the outcome of the company. That's all I ever wanted as an employee, unfortunately I've had too many bosses that didn't understand and were terrible managers. Ultimately a part of why I started my own company.

But if I received a letter from my boss like on page 1 of this thread, I would laugh in his face. Respect is earned.

Will,

You hit it on the head Bro !!! Not me .. I dont mix business with pleasure ... maybe the construction industry is different .. I agree you dont have to talk down to employees .. but you cannot be too nice .. you will surely get taken advantage of. I have been there done that and it dont work.

I have caught employees doing every thing from side jobs with co vehicles on co time, to dialing 900 numbers, stealing tools & materials, abusing credit cards, punching other peoples time cards, leaving early, hour coffe breaks, taking money on the side etc.

Fired all 60 of them, cleaned house restructured and now I do 1/2 the volume and tripled the profits .. I have the same 20 employees for the past 7 years .. and now I can take care of the good, valuable, loyal hardworking poeple who now work for me. But it 15 years to get it this way.

Ron

David ..god bless you ... if it works stay with it .. but your generousity is one in a million. Why because there some things you cannot change ..its human nature.

Ron

quote:

Originally posted by David B:
They have lots of stuff that I don't have - timeshares, country homes, hobbies and friends. And best of all they get four weeks off every year to enjoy it ... I'm on pretty much 24/7 and live in a pressure cooker of my own design ... Their only worry is that if the stress kills me, who will take care of them?

David,

If you need help relaxing, maybe its time to retire and relocate to Ventura. We can soak in the hot tub with a bottle of cab every night, look up at the stars in the clear sky. I'll keep the steaks on the BBQ too. The temp was in the high 70's today (farenheit). Think of all the money you'd save on your heating bill. You can drive your Pantera throughout the year. The Pacific Ocean. Bikinis. Palm trees. Beautiful women of all ages on every corner.

We can build our Ventura Pantera Posse. My friend Doug & his wife Julie can come over & join us; George Walker is in Ventura too. Eventually I'm going to convince Coz & Elaine to move out here too.

You once told me southern Californians reminded you of the French. So a move to Ventura from Montreal shouldn't be that much of a culture shock, eh?

And the biggest benefit, you'll get to tease your Canadian buddies with igloo jokes!

<<<<<<
Why not? They have lots of stuff that I don't have - timeshares, country homes, hobbies and friends. And best of all they get four weeks off every year to enjoy it!

They take extra unpaid holidays whenever they want and work a daily schedule that fits their family life and their activities - not mine.

I have no problem showing them the fruits of my labors. I'm in the office before them and still there while they're on their 4th beer at home. I'm on pretty much 24/7 and live in a pressure cooker of my own design. They know it and I'm sure that none of them want to trade places with me.

I bail my employees out of divorces, breakups, legal problems and they depend on me to help their families out with whatever. I do this to keep them happy and productive. That's what an employer does.

Their only worry is that if the stress kills me, who will take care of them?>>>>>>

Dave, white collar employees obviously have a different mentality than blue collar workers.
More than a couple of my customers made a comment to my partner after Pocono about how it must be nice for me to be racing my "Ferrari" around in the states. My partner asked me not to mention my "Ferrari" around employees and customers.
Years ago, my ex-partner had a 10 yr old 5- series BMW. It was a nice car with 100k miles and M5 rims. It's value was approx. $12k at the time (about a third of what a service vehicle cost).I had many customers make comments to me about how business must be good because my partner had a BMW.
NONE of my contractor friends drive their nice cars to work.
It wasn't too long ago that I was an employee. In fact, I still put on a work-pouch most days and hear the comments from employees about their employers. 1 in 10 comments are positive.
Will