Does this scenario sound familiar? You hire a student or a parent of a student because they seem nice and are in need of a job.
Over time, you realize that this person isn’t a good fit for your business. Yet, despite the mounting evidence, you hesitate to let them go.
You might think, “Sally is a good person. If we fire her, this and that will happen to her.”
What you might be overlooking is the potential impact of keeping Sally on. If her performance or behavior negatively affects your school, it could lead to significant problems for your business.
Let me share a story from a memorable lunch my wife, Janet, and I had on a beautiful spring day in Dunedin last year. We met my brother Jim and one of his long-distance students.
This student, who I think was named Steve, ran a thriving business. As a reward for top staff, he offered a month-long trip to Florida, including training with Jim. A nice perk indeed.
During our lunch, Steve shared an employee strategy that intrigued me. It was a concept long before the Trump TV show “The Apprentice.” Simply put, Steve’s staff knew that each October or November, one person would be fired.
Regardless of the team’s overall success, someone would go, but they never knew who.
While I’m not necessarily advocating for this approach, it does emphasize the importance of focusing on the business’s purpose: maintaining profitability. As a business owner, the risks you face are substantial.
Losing a job is a challenge, but losing everything you’ve built due to an employee’s mistake—or worse, a lawsuit resulting from their actions—is far more severe.
I had several employees who earned over $200,000 a year. Where are they now? They’ve moved on with their lives. Their risk was merely the possibility of losing a job I created. My risk, however, was the potential for a massive lawsuit triggered by their incompetence.
The point is clear. You cannot afford to keep someone whose only risk is finding a new job, while you risk losing everything you’ve worked for due to their mistakes.