Employees

For some, starting a business automatically assumes that there will be employees. Maybe you can't do it yet, but your goal is to have other people farmed out earning money for you. There's a lot of advantages to that model, but hiring people has its own share of headaches.

I started my business as a one man shop in 1983. By 1987, I had five employees. It just about killed me, financially and emotionally. I am simply NOT a good manager of other people, and I'm far too optimistic about other people's work ethics. I did eventually fire everyone and was back to "just me" by 1989, but the damage had been done and it was hard, hard times from then on. I was in debt, very discouraged, felt like a complete failure, and found it very hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

After a rocky recovery, which included having to work for other people myself for a few years, I started over in 1997 and have remained without employees since then. That's not always easy, of course. There are times I could use some help, and times that I'm very stressed by the volume of work that needs to be done. But for me, staying just like this is the best way.

Consider that once you have employees, you HAVE to meet payroll every week or every month. You'll have extra expenses too, like Workers Compensation and Unemployment taxes. The drumbeat regularity of those financial needs may force you into spending more time searching for new business and taking business that you really don't want: lower paying work, more difficult customers, slower paying clients. You'll also have the stress of being responsible for the performance of your employees: if they do sub-standard work, it is likely to be you that will have to go "do it right".

You also have moral responsibilies. Your employees will be depending on you and your company to give them that paycheck. You may experience a slowdown and have to trim back employees: it's not fun letting someone go when their work is perfectly fine and the only problem is that you can't find enough to keep them busy.

Obviously many people meet these issues and do well with employees. It's not for everyone though, and you should consider these things carefully before adding people beyond yourself.

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