Employees seeing revenues and profits?

Spades

Spades

New member
Mar 19, 2007
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Florida
How do you guys handle disclosing revenue to your employees? For example, your in-house developers working on your reporting platforms. They obviously have limitless access to your revenue.

Even if you are paying employees extremely well for their position, I can't seem to shake the idea that at some point they will decide that their 60-100k/year doesn't compare. Ultimately, leaving the company to become your competitor.

Yes, non-competes and disclosures make you feel a little better. But as most other people running teams will tell you, they only go so far. If someone wants to compete they will find a way.
 


You have to realise most people crave security more than they crave money. Fear outweighs greed. Living from steady paycheque to paycheque is extremely addictive and people don't want to leave as they have no idea how they will survive without a job.

If they do, try and invest in them or something or work with them and part on good terms.
 
dsm56 said:
You have to realise most people crave security more than they crave money. Fear outweighs greed. Living from steady paycheque to paycheque is extremely addictive and people don't want to leave as they have no idea how they will survive without a job.

If they do, try and invest in them or something or work with them and part on good terms.
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^^This. Most people want a steady paycheck, and have zero business sense. It takes a certain type of person to run a business. Most employees aren't the type. You can also have them sign a NDA and Non compete agreement. Make sure you hire a good lawyer to draw it up so that it is air tight.
 
Public companies have to display their profit and revenue, yet millions of people work for them. All depends what you're doing
 
If they deserve to be paid more, pay them. Otherwise let them walk.

You can't be afraid of your employees being ambitious. You have to recruit the right people and create a culture that people value as much, or more than a paycheck.
 
Spades said:
How do you guys handle disclosing revenue to your employees? For example, your in-house developers working on your reporting platforms. They obviously have limitless access to your revenue.

Even if you are paying employees extremely well for their position, I can't seem to shake the idea that at some point they will decide that their 60-100k/year doesn't compare. Ultimately, leaving the company to become your competitor.

Yes, non-competes and disclosures make you feel a little better. But as most other people running teams will tell you, they only go so far. If someone wants to compete they will find a way.
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Stop treating your employees like children.

They aren't going to leave just because they know how much money you're making. They'll leave because they a. don't like how they're being treated or b. were always going to leave anyway.

Felix Dennis has a great attitude... if people want to leave and set up in competition, he wishes them all the best, and tells them if it doesn't work out, they have a job here waiting for them.

Many of them come back, having worked out they were better off as employees all along, and having gained some useful experiences at their own expense. And even for the ones who don't, it's useful to have a friendly competitor.
 
jstover77 said:
^^This. Most people want a steady paycheck, and have zero business sense. It takes a certain type of person to run a business. Most employees aren't the type. You can also have them sign a NDA and Non compete agreement. Make sure you hire a good lawyer to draw it up so that it is air tight.
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NDA's and Non compete's only go so far. For instance Florida is a 'right to work' state, which trumps a non-compete. If an employee quits and needs to make money, they have the right to work in your industry either for someone else or on their own.
 
(300 voice)

This.... Is...FLORIDAAAAAA....

None of your laws mean anything once you cross the border down here...

Good luck with that non-compete, regular 49 states - USA laws... Ohh... English???? No. Not even that. Also, Why do you think we all seem to know how far away from a swamp we are at all times? If you come down here and someone asks if you want to see the "swamps" and "alligators"... you might want to reconsider whatever you just previously setup with them.

Good luck if you actually cross the Miami-Dade county line. Then you are really in another country. Laws and rules mean nada down here. Non-compete... No hablo. Yes, Yes compete...

Good luck bros.
 
Spades said:
How do you guys handle disclosing revenue to your employees? For example, your in-house developers working on your reporting platforms. They obviously have limitless access to your revenue.

Even if you are paying employees extremely well for their position, I can't seem to shake the idea that at some point they will decide that their 60-100k/year doesn't compare. Ultimately, leaving the company to become your competitor.

Yes, non-competes and disclosures make you feel a little better. But as most other people running teams will tell you, they only go so far. If someone wants to compete they will find a way.
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In-house developer != entrepreneur

Lots more skills go into running a business than just being a good developer, and if they don't think so then let them go and try for themselves. Don't be harsh, wish them the best of luck and tell them that there'll always be a job for them if it doesn't quite work out.

If you think it's that easy for someone to copy your business, then you've got bigger problems.
 
Some quick thoughts

- Who's more likely to quit to go on their own...the 22 year old ambitious kid, or the 30 year old mother of 3? You gotta evaluate if they're the entrepreneur type or the security type.

- Are you compensating them enough? It's hard for someone to be satisfied making $50k a year if they're managing a $5k profit a day campaign. Especially if they know everything about the campaign. Offer them a % split of the campaigns if they're really putting work in. They have access to your knowledge, relationships, and cash-flow so they could make more working for you than on their own.

- How easy is it for them to compete against you? Do they have access to the same traffic sources and offers that you do? Things like going direct with the advertiser, having strong relationships with traffic sources, etc. help create a little moat for you.

Keep in mind there's very, very low barriers to entry in this industry especially if someone has some knowledge by working with you. Ultimately you have to make it so they're better off working for you than they would be on their own.
 
Non-competes do little to nothing unless the person who signed it is also a part owner in your business. They are best used to scare someone into not competing but are not likely to hold up in court.

The 10,000 foot view of this is you cannot prevent someone from making a living. So if your employee is trained in a specific field, has an NDA with you, and leaves your company, it would be considered unfair to prevent that person from finding work within their ability / skill set / experience.

ie: spend whole life becoming a master chef then told you cannot work as a chef or in a kitchen because of a non-compete. What would you do, become a lawyer overnight?
 
Easy fix brah, hire women. But in all seriousness, look for pregnant women or women who just got married. They are meticulous and detail oriented plus they have absolutely no desire to run your company or find work elsewhere.
 
jfizzle said:
Easy fix brah, hire women. But in all seriousness, look for pregnant women or women who just got married. They are meticulous and detail oriented plus they have absolutely no desire to run your company or find work elsewhere.
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Pregnant women?

Brb, working for 6 months then leaving for a year before coming back to work whilst you're expected to pay her.
 
I often hear people saying that you have to be an entrepreneur to succeed online.
Well i guess if you have a huge SEO agency then this might be true (but you can still hire a CEO), but in my opinion this is nearly an offline business.
I know that you DON'T need to have entrepreneurial skills to make a killing online.
And if you just run some shit by yourself to make money online this doesn't make you a CEO or Entrepreneur, no matter what numbers you are making.

papajohn56 said:
Public companies have to display their profit and revenue, yet millions of people work for them. All depends what you're doing
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The thing is, in most businesses the employees can't compete.
Why can't you come up with your own Bank of America overnight?
Think about starup costs, company assets, and so on. I think those are the best arguments to not compete.
Maybe Spade can manipulate his developer into thinking that this is where the magic happens in his company (expensive domains, or something similar..)
 
Damn guys thanks for jumping in. There's an unbelievable amount of gold in this thread with a ton of different perspectives.

I'll admit, after reading through all of this I should probably shake the paranoia. If people want to leave they can leave. Life will go on, people will be replaced, and growth is far more important.

Dr Ngo, 100% agree with your points. This is exactly where I am coming from. If someone is involved with high volume campaigns their salary starts to look meek regardless of how high their salary is. I have considered the % incentives but I think that almost preps them for rolling with the ups and downs. To me, that is the highest barrier for entry in our industry. So many people hit those huge campaigns and don't know how to handle the following failure.

To my defense, I realized that I have actually been doing one thing right. Over the past year or two I have moved my focus to more involved and higher barrier for entry business models. Beyond the obvious benefits of longevity and stability it actually provides a pretty solid solution.
 
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