That if you start throwing the raises from the get go, they want even more. So there's not going to be any end to that. And you kind of get yourself into this vicious cycle of just constantly throwing more money.
Acquiring Minds
Building Trust as New Owner of a $3m Business
Excerpts · 392 segments · ~1:24:41 long
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So I was very cautious on how I was approaching it. And you know, I was taking things by the merit, taking slow, but sometimes way too slow to realize that, okay, no, I should not have done it. And I had to retract a couple of decisions that way.
But what I realized over time, like say spending. So when the former owner was there. For first three months, I didn't realize it enough because he was kind of the go to person for most of the people.
And if there was anything, there was a trusted person still in this seat that they were going to. Once he left in the first month or two, I started realizing that, okay, people lost that trusted person and then the morale was different. Our productivity was low.
We had some turnover at that time. And I was like, what is going on? Like it feels like the ship was perfectly sailing and suddenly every single part of it is breaking apart.
So what's going on? Then I kind of started introspecting, learning more about how a blue collar workforce can be managed. The two managers that I promoted, I started to talk to them about it to realize that okay, they are at the ground level. One of the person that I elevated was actually an installer for us before he got elevated to that management position.
So he told me that, okay, you know, what we are actually looking for is somebody who's like us. Like they see you as a white collar hot shot from Wall street that walks in and starts barking orders. He said that to you?
Yeah, you know, different, different words, but same, same, same. I hope so. Yeah, no, but, yeah, but, but the gist. Yeah. And the previous, and the previous owner had, had been more like them than like you.
Yeah. So previous owner was almost the same. Background as almost every staff we've had. He's a real rags to riches story.
Like he came from nothing. He was on the street. He built this business from scratch, lost everything around GFC time, rebuild it to a level where it is right now, having trusted people around him.
So all these people had some sort of connection. It was from the same community that he belonged to. So most of the people had some connection.
They spoke, he spoke the language, you know, they spoke Spanish, Portuguese. He spoke them both fluently. So they felt that connection.
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