October, 2008

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The Balance Of Owning a Business And Having Friends, Can You?

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

So you have got yourself a great little business and you are about to sit down and find the right people to work for you.

The fun is just about to begin. First you think of all your friends that you think would love to work for you.
You approach your best friend and he or she says Get Off, what me work for you, not likely, but you can work for me.

Your next bunch of friends jump at the chance as long as they all come together and Sam works with Jack and Racheal works with Linda and only on the days that suit our social life. Also when Paul has a day off Samantha can cover for him as long as the baby sitter is on time and the boyfriends sisters husbands brother isn’t passing by the pub and getting drunk, blah, blah blah…

Then there are the family members that think wow Uncle Brad has this awesome Camping gear shop, I just love camping what say I work for him and get a heap of free camping gear, cool.

Then your older brother whom has just lost his job for abusing customers rocks up in a suit and tie and ready to start.
You have no choice as he is broke, he’s your brother and says he will be on his best behaviour, so you give him the managers job.

Do I need to say what has happened two weeks later, does this sound like a possible senario.

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Your Husband Is On The Grog, The Kids Are Screaming And The Guests Beds Need Changing! Welcome To The Accommodation Industry.

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

You get up off the lounge from your nanna nap to the sound of one of your screaming kids and realize he has been screaming for a while and you still have guests beds to make and a accommodation business to run.

You own a accommodation resort on the outskirts of Chicago with 40 odd guests in. They are a road crew rebuilding a major highway and will be in for a few months.
All was great until you realized just how demanding this group of people could be. I mean the last road crew in here were just great and some awesome friendships were formed. Hell even two of them Matt and Jerry call in when traveling through just to say hello and have a real hearty meal.

This crew is or seems to be the exact opposite, they don’t shower before tea, swear in the dining room, wear there dirty boots in the rooms then demand everything to be spotless clean.
As well as not being able to work out to operate the TV as the remote isn’t working, or the cake of soap is the wrong brand and smells bad.

All this we can handle, thats part and parcel of the accommodation hospitality industry.
What I am struggling with is that the team boss is a ass-hole and keeps threatening to shift over to the Boulder Heights Motel 5 miles east of here.
So my hubby gets on the booze with him almost every night and they simply run a muck.

Sure the boss man is loving it, they get drunk, raid the kitchen, make a mess which really has the cook ready to hand her notice in. Now living with a drunk husband is making the home life with the kids a real challenge.

Yes we need the business as we are struggling with a few debts. However if we keep this crew in we could loose our best cook. I don’t know how much more of these screaming kids with no Dad sober enough to look after them can I take while I go and change the rooms.
Now with a crew like this in I need to oversee the rooms being changed to make sure there are next to no complaints from the so called guests.

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Own And Operate As A Husband And Wife Run Business, Can You?

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Its 5am in the morning, the alarm sounds out for the second time as you lay there in your warm bed, knowing that it is at least minus 10 degrees outside. I’m sure its my husbands turn to get up and make sure the breakfast cook has everything sorted out.

Then bamm, like a lightning bolt your thoughts are sh.t, snow, road block, hows the cook going to get here this morning, think,think, yep thats right the travel cook is on today and yes its Wednesday, my turn to do the rounds.

launch out of bed then realize you did sprain an ankle 2 days ago and the sudden movement you just made sends you straight down to the ground beside your bed with a chilling screech of pain that shoots your hubby 3 feet straight up toward the ceiling, or close too anyway.

What the hell is going on woman says a groggy husband whom has just realized he has one heck of a hangover from last night, knowing it was his sleep in morning he sort of overindulged in the grog with a few of the day shift staff.

Not that you really minded as his sexual display toward you when he came to bed may have been a bit short although it was full of energy and adventure!

Now all these thoughts are zapping around and now we have a hobbling wife a hung-over husband and a cook stuck on the highway.

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Employing Friends In Your Business, Should You Do it?

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

In our last post we spoke of employing friends and family in your own business.
We spoke of how it wasn’t really a good idea as in most cases the friendship can be irreversibly damaged.

When we get some feed back from you the reader we will be able to establish on a more broader scale if this is a fact or whether some people may thrive in this environment.

Speaking from our own experience with running our own business in the sheep shearing industry I can just about say 99% of people whom I employed that were close friends are now simply people that once worked for us and have moved on.

I wouldn’t say they are no longer a friend, they just don’t associate with us socially anymore.
However, here is the twist. It is not that we have had a working relationship fall out or had a huge argument. The basis of the majority of cases comes down to human peer pressure.

Let me explain, Jack is a close friend and begins working for us and comes over to our place after work for a chat.
The next day he comes to work with me in my car and we chat a bit. A couple days later I invite Jack over to our place for a dinner with our family.

Then a issue happens at work and someone snigger’s I bet Jack told the contractor (as in me) because he is always over at his place or traveling together and sucking up the bosses a….

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