Chapter 33

For the first time she noticed, how gorgeous his eyes were; he had long eyelashes and beautiful blue eyes which looked as if it was shining in the light. She was able to notice his eyes even through his glasses; she wished he would take them off so that she can see his eyes much better. She felt a little jealous, why men have beautiful eyelashes, it doesn’t matter to them anyway! She started concentrating on what he was talking.

Now we are going to discuss about how to find good subcontractors, suppliers and employees and how to keep them. How to motivate good employees and how to reward them? With any business, you have partners which help you to succeed and who will want to share in your success. These are your suppliers, your contract workers and your employees. They make it possible for you to supply your customers with the products and services they want and to reach the goals you have set for your business. It is therefore very important to identify good partners, give them feedback on their performance and to reward them when you are successful because of them.

Your relationship to your suppliers and contract workers is governed by the contracts you sign with them and by agreements you reach. As you work more closely with your partners and build up experience and trust, you'll save time by not having to formalize everything. You'll work together to be successful together - you'll realize that, what's good for one is good for the other. The best partners are those for whom this applies the most.

Employees are more complicated. Their relationship with you is essentially contractual but also legal, with all jurisdictions imposing special laws on the employer/employee relationship. This means the mutual benefits which drive your other relations and simplify them don't apply. As a result, becoming an employer is a big step and costly in terms of time, money and effort. Your small business may need to have employees but more and more don't and rely on contract workers and suppliers instead. If you decide not to become an employer, it is critical that you pay attention to the laws defining the employee relationship so that you don't, in the future, have your contract workers declared employees for tax purposes.