The 22-year-old CEO asks Dave Ramsey what to do about employees seeking ownership. His advice after a sincere laughter? “Jack, hit the road.”
Young business owner called into Dave Ramsey”Entre LeadershipPodcast with an astonishing dilemma: One of his employees sought ownership of the company. The caller, the 22-year-old CEO of an outdoor recreational events company, had no idea how to handle it.
“You have to make me a joke,” Ramsey said with a laugh. “I have two employees, I’ve just started this and am 22. I’m not dealing with fairness at this point.
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The caller explained him I started a business He was 18 for hundreds of dollars and his annual revenue grew to around $500,000. He hired employees full-time and ran the events with a focus on scaling.
“I’ll pay them,” the caller said. “And recently they’ve been doing a good job, so I gave them 10% profit on the goods and 5% profit on the business at the end of the year. Even after doing that, they still insisted they wanted ownership.”
Ramsey didn’t hesitate. “Tap the path, Jack. It’s not a chance. The last thing you need is your partner,” he said. “The tail is not waving the dog here. You are a dog, you are a man.”
Ramsey shared how he compensated his team. Ramsey Solution: “I have a Vice President in this place, I have an executive VPS, my steering committee. There is no salary out of them. They all receive compensation from the company’s final line on the 15th of the following month.
Ramsey revealed that while employees may be valuable, it is “asinin” to seek fairness in small, younger businesses.
“What they really want is more money,” he said. That’s why Ramsey encouraged them to pay as if they were partners, but without giving them any real ownership.
Ramsey then outlined his compensation plan. Pay a lower base salary and add a percentage of profit from employee-controlled events. For example, if two events per month each bring in a profit of $10,000 and employees are responsible for them, paying 15% of that profit will be stronger.