My Business On Purpose

If you have ever been interested to see a group of business owners conduct a communal eye roll, bring up the topic of bonus and incentives. A few years ago we had a client who decided to reward their team from a banner year and forego distributing a substantial six-figure margin to himself and his partner.  There was no expectation created for this one-off distribution.   It was a $200,000 sum that would be distributed to around 25 employees… you can do the math.  Not bad.   The response? Crickets.   Of the 25 employees, there was a thoughtful “thank you” from three, a casual “thank you” from a few more, and crickets from everyone else. To add insult to unexpected injury, the next day an employee came in and confessed, “I just got a job offer to go make $10k more per year and I don’t know what to do…” Candidly, when calculating an employee's compensation, most owners in businesses with less than 50 employees have not considered the additional investment of bonus or incentive outlays.  When the thought finally