Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: WadeRyan]
#7350479
09/08/21 01:18 PM
09/08/21 01:18 PM
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Joined: Feb 2021
Posts: 2,365 Interior Alaska
Oh Snap
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2021
Posts: 2,365
Interior Alaska
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bblwi your post makes a lot of sense. You lost me on the labor part.
I just got off the phone from a contractor from Florida building a Holiday express. I had to turn down the work he needed done due to a small crew and one sick employee. He said he hears about people not wanting to work all the time. Something has happened to the work force in the last couple of years.
Restaurants have closed here, reduced hours, auto repair shops are a month out due to lack of help, EVERY business that I see and communicate with has the same problem.
I gladly pay over 4 times minimum wage, cause our work is 90% Davis Bacon scale. I pay weekly and pay overtime over 8/40.
If you can come up with the answer to put people back productive you would be the MAN!
I love the smell of burning spruce---I love the sound of a spring time goose---I love the feel of 40 below---from my trapline I will never go!
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: bblwi]
#7350487
09/08/21 01:37 PM
09/08/21 01:37 PM
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Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,947 east central WI
Dirty D
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,947
east central WI
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It is interesting to read the comments about how much businesses pay in labor, benefits, UE etc. and then complain because no one is willing to show up and work. With an attitude toward labor like that maybe they don't want to work for a firm that feels they are a drain.
Bryce I never considered my employees a drain. Their labor along with my management and continual investment into machines and equipment is what allowed me to sell the place and retire early. Trouble with the vast majority of employees is the lack of an idea what it costs to have them work for you. I spent the time to track all the costs and benefits I paid to each employee besides their wages. Needless to say they were surprised about how much a month it was. Approx 1/4 to 1/3 of their wages was paid by the business for benefits. I covered Health Ins 100%, when the Ins. went up 20-30% I adsorbed the cost. The employees never paid a dime in health Ins yet wondered why they didn't get as big a raise as their buddies down the road who paid a couple of thousand a year for ins. I also paid out a bonus to all employees at the end of the year which my competitors never did. They gave out turkeys, I gave out on average $2000 to each employee. I gave out bonus strictly one how good of an employee I considered them. Biggest divide between owners and employees is the work ethic and drive. Yes, there is maybe 20% of the employees that care and put in the effort but the other 80% don't. Another is an employer that asks something of them which he is not willing to do himself. I made sure I always did more than my employees did. I was the first in and the last out. I took considerable less time off then they got. I would jump in and help do any job to get things done. especially the crappy jobs that they didn't like. I used my time as constructively as possible. I didn't waste my time. I had an employee back the truck into the shop while forgetting to close the drivers door. The steel bollard bent the door back so it couldn't be closed. Cost me over $2000 to fix it. It was the source of alot of laughs and jokes around the shop. That is till I told the employees that the money it took to fix it is coming out of the bonus money pool. That amount of money divided by the number of employees was about $250 ea. They did think the guy screwing up and costing them $250 was funny anymore. Most employees don't have a clue what it takes. Most don't care and most just care about themselves. Its no wonder most employers have a bad attitude towards labor. If anyone is to blame for the labor/employer divide its the gov't who forces the employer to carry a much larger financial burden when employing labor. Employers have lots to loose if things don't work out, employees have very little to loose.
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: WadeRyan]
#7350496
09/08/21 01:51 PM
09/08/21 01:51 PM
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Joined: Feb 2021
Posts: 2,365 Interior Alaska
Oh Snap
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2021
Posts: 2,365
Interior Alaska
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A lot of truth Dirty D! I have a life time of employee horror stories and could write a book. Still fun though seeing the 20% benefit!
Last edited by Oh Snap; 09/08/21 01:57 PM. Reason: Fix spell check
I love the smell of burning spruce---I love the sound of a spring time goose---I love the feel of 40 below---from my trapline I will never go!
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: Lugnut]
#7350531
09/08/21 02:41 PM
09/08/21 02:41 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,802 MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
Trapper7
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 15,802
MN, Land of 10,000 Lakes
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It's wonderful. You get to pay into Unemployment Compensation but are not eligible to collect a dime. It's basically work or starve for you while many live off of what you pay in. You get to match your employees SS deductions but will never see a dime of those contributions.
When first starting out you get to work 12-16 hours a day and act as boss, labor, secretary, bookkeeper, regional sales guy and estimator.
Seriously though, I enjoy it and wouldn't trade it for anything I can think of.
All of that's true, even the last sentence.
Must be nice to eat ice cream as fast as you want and not have to worry about brain freeze.
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: Paul Dobbins]
#7350769
09/08/21 08:24 PM
09/08/21 08:24 PM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 867 Indiana
cattails
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 867
Indiana
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It's really fun when the city I have a contract with suddenly after 31 years requires me to have a Workers Comp policy, even though I'm not required by the state to have it since I don't have any employees. As the business owner, I can't even use it.
Now the Workers Comp folks are doing an audit on my policy, and it's been going on for weeks. They'll ask for this, I'll send it, then they'll ask for something else, and I provide it, then it's something else. I'm about ready to drop this small contract. This is pure stupidity. Paul, I'm wondering if the local city employees are correctly informed or if your state is different than Indiana. My company carries workman's comp..... If I had no employees, I would send down state and apply for a waiver. I am 100 % sure of this .
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: cattails]
#7350795
09/08/21 08:57 PM
09/08/21 08:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 16,606 Goldsboro, North Carolina
Paul Dobbins
"Trapperman custodian"
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"Trapperman custodian"
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 16,606
Goldsboro, North Carolina
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It's really fun when the city I have a contract with suddenly after 31 years requires me to have a Workers Comp policy, even though I'm not required by the state to have it since I don't have any employees. As the business owner, I can't even use it.
Now the Workers Comp folks are doing an audit on my policy, and it's been going on for weeks. They'll ask for this, I'll send it, then they'll ask for something else, and I provide it, then it's something else. I'm about ready to drop this small contract. This is pure stupidity. Paul, I'm wondering if the local city employees are correctly informed or if your state is different than Indiana. My company carries workman's comp..... If I had no employees, I would send down state and apply for a waiver. I am 100 % sure of this . The city is aware of the state regs saying it's not required of businesses with 3 employees or less, but they want the extra insurance. They're paying for it, but its this danged audit that's eating up so much of my time, and it's really irritating me. They keep moving the goal posts.
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: bblwi]
#7350803
09/08/21 09:02 PM
09/08/21 09:02 PM
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Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,947 east central WI
Dirty D
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,947
east central WI
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One of the reasons the employers pay most of the benefits and not the government is that almost all businesses that pay into the lobby funds don't want the government to take over HC and other aspects of employee costs because as much as many dislike having to offer or pay those costs they don't want to give up the control that having a lot of bargaining power gone when hiring and promoting employees. The recent passage of the ACA further shows that today.
Bryce No, the reason businesses end up paying all the benefits that benefit the employee and not the employer is cause it was easier for daddy sugar bucks (Gov't) to pass all the laws/benefits when someone else has to pay for them. There is another person who could pay and logical should pay for workman's comp, the employers 1/2 of SS and other costs. That is the employee. I'll bet if you asked a majority of employers would gladly have someone else deal with all the benefits. Why should the employer pay for the employees benefits? if the employee wants workman's comp, health Ins and what ever else why doesn't he pay for them? They are no benefit to the employer, the guy who pays for them. I'll remind you that health Ins was started as a benefit during WWII as a way to offer more to employees when wages were frozen by the Gov't. Again the gov't is at the root of our problems. In a perfect world a employer should only pay a wage to his employee for his labor, nothing more, nothing less. An employee should be able to get and pay for workman's comp, unemployment ins, health ins and ss if he wants. If he wants to roll the dice he should be free to. When one is young it would beneficial to pass on all the benefits and get a big nest egg faster to allow one to get a home, family and other things that benefit society as a whole. then when older buy the ins and benefits. Lets also admit how lousy our Gov't does at everything it does. An individual would be well ahead just investing money in the market vs paying into SS.
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: WadeRyan]
#7350837
09/08/21 09:30 PM
09/08/21 09:30 PM
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,524 MN
Steven 49er
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,524
MN
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It's really fun to claim zero and single all year and still have to pay in and if it's a really good year make quarterly payments or get fined.
I should have had more kids lol.
"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon". Milton Friedman.
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Re: Owning a business is fun
[Re: WadeRyan]
#7350933
09/08/21 10:54 PM
09/08/21 10:54 PM
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 2,162 N.E. Nebr
LDW
trapper
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 2,162
N.E. Nebr
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Are you still in the medical field Wade? The hospital where the little woman works is paying a $750 bonus per shift to get nurses to work nights on weekends in a cov** unit. That's some real money! I've heard the same is going on in Ft Smith Ark. I sure am Gary, I've gotten away from the wild medical field and am enjoying relaxing primary care. There is some serious money involved when you're facing Covid every day. They're earning it. Here locally I've heard new graduated nursing staff making $30 an hour base with sometimes as high as $20 an hour more for shift differential if they pick a shift up (on top of the overtime made) and they have a referral bonus of $5-10k I can't remember which. The healthcare system in hospitals is definitely taxed right now. I talked to a physician at the ER I used to work in that called every hospital in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa to find an ICU bed one night as they were full with no ICU beds. That patient spent a night in the ED as an ICU patient. The problem is going to be when this levels out everyone is going to be used to those wages. It won't last forever.
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