Managing Your Small Business During a Labor Shortage

The Small business show episode 366 for Wednesday, February 9, 2022. Greetings, folks and welcome back to the Small Business Show. Or welcome to the Small Business show if it's your first time here we are the show where we are small businessing every single week. Sponsors for this episode include Bambi@bambi.com small where you can get a free trial of this awesome HR service. We will share more details in the episode, but you're definitely going to want to pay attention to this. So check that out when we talk about it a little bit more in depth in a few minutes here. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire with the in between snowstorms, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And here in Northern California, I'm Shannon Jean. Good to talk to you again this week, Dave.

It's good to talk to you too, my friend. Yeah, man, absolutely.

I'm looking forward to hearing about Bambi. If I could have hired an HR department for around 100 bucks a month 20 years ago, I could only imagine how much more successful my companies would have been.

Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. I like, for some reason, you know, I like, I like the accounting. I know I'm weird, but it's just me. It's fine. I like legal stuff usually. I mean, it's a headache sometimes, but I like digging into it just the same way I like digging into accounting. I do not like HR stuff and I do not like insurance. So I like that we get to solve that problem here. So again, we'll talk more about it later in the show. It's good though. I have a tip to share with everybody, something that as a small, a small businessing person I have leveraged many times and over my, my life. And I even use this as just a person that doesn't have a small business too. And that is you can get free shipping supplies from the US Postal Service, from the United Parcel Service, aka UPS, and from FedEx. You go to their websites, you sign up and they will ship you their shipping supplies for free. These things are great. One of the things that I love and I get these from UPS and FedEx are the shipping, they call them pouches where it's a sticky pouch, one side of it is stickier than you could possibly imagine. And it's just a clear sleeve that you can slide, you print your shipping label, you slide it in. But, but I use those labels. I don't just use them with UPS or FedEx. I use them with the US Postal Service all the time. If I'm shipping in One of my own boxes. It's fantastic. It saves so much. I hate having to put four pieces of tape over the top of a shipping label.

Oh, no, no, no.

So those pouches are great. And then the U.S. postal Service, especially if you're doing Priority Mail, they'll give you free boxes. And those can be great too. So it's just one of those things. I was talking to a friend the other day and I was like, oh, we'll just use the waybill. You know the pouches you get from ups, they're like, what are you talking about? I'm like, well, what do you. How do you not know? I must tell you about this. This is an amazing thing.

It is a good resource. And you can also pick them up if you have a UPS store near you or a FedEx office or the post office. If you just need small things.

Yeah, that's true.

You can go by and grab a handful or this kind of thing. But certainly ordering online, the boxes are, are free if you're using their express services, not their ground. But they're definitely worth it. And you can. I mean, I save a ton of money. I have big stacks of USPS boxes in my office I'm looking at right now.

I'm going to be honest, I've used the USPS boxes with FedEx and UPS.

Yeah, you can definitely get away with it.

What I mean, you got to pay ups. Like, you don't get any special deal because you're using a box. But it's a box. Like they'll ship it.

They don't care. Yeah, they don't care. One caveat is if you're. You get some of these boxes and some of the boxes are labeled like flat rate, medium box, or this kind of thing, be careful because if you use those with the wrong service, you'll wind up and you ship it and you have an account, or if you're using a marketplace like ebay or something like that, you're gonna get billed for an increase in the shipping costs. Cause you did not use the correct box.

That's right.

And the way you can get around that is if you sticker the barcodes that are printed on that box, because that's how they pick it up when they scan it through their system. The barcode that's printed on the box tells USPS what kind of box it is. And then they scan the barcode on the label to confirm that you paid for that service. And the way to get around that is to put a little sticker over those Barcodes.

Oh, a tip on top. The tip man.

You're welcome.

See. Yeah, thank you. Right, that's amazing. Yeah.

Because sometimes those medium or large flat rate, it fits, you know what you're shipping perfectly but there's a whole different rate structure for those things and so you can just cover. And you know what I, you know what stickers I use to cover those barcodes up? USPS Priority Mail stickers.

The priority. Oh, the ones that they will provide for you. That's.

And you can order a roll of those. There's about a thousand in the roll and they're, they're phenomenal. They're good for security seals on the edge of your boxes as well. Clearly I' of into shipping, you can tell and I, I love the out of box experience. We've done a show about that. Yes. Probably a couple years back. So there's a lot of great stuff you can do with usps.

That's great.

Yeah.

I put links in the show notes at Business show to each of the, the, the, the places on each of of their websites where you can order those, those, you know, shipping supplies from USPS, UPS and FedEx.

So that's cool.

Yeah.

You know, all those services will come pick up at your house or office for free if you call them anytime you need them.

Free for free. Not ups if you are. Unless you have a delivery coming.

If you really. Because I thought that if you just called for a regular pickup it was free. But if you, if you have, oh, we want you to come by every day. There's a weekly charge for that.

No, I could be wrong. Yeah, U.S. postal Service is free to pick up. Yes, UPS and I think FedEx will charge you if you choose a pickup. But if you're like me and UPS and FedEx at your house a few times a week and you're not, you know, you don't have to ship out like right away. Just chill on it, put a little note, you know, make sure you're nice to your driver and friendly all year and they'll just grab it and take it and it doesn't charge you anything.

And I would just ask, I would recommend you ask them to scan it. If you just have a couple of boxes, especially if there's anything valuable in them, just ask. Hey, could you scan it when you put it in the back of the truck? Because not only will that get it tracking faster, but take it from someone that has just recently gone through the process of having to file claims for empty boxes that showed up that had had valuable items in them when they shipped, and the FedEx process of going through and tracking down where this happened, which just happened to lead back to the driver, who I handed it to them at my house. And the only way it led back is because they tracked what he delivered and was able to see, oh, it was this driver, this, that and the other thing. But I did not have him scan them. I just handed it to him. And they, they were like, okay, next time don't ever do that again.

Yeah, right, right.

Yeah, but cool. But this is not a show about shipping, right?

No, but I just wanted to share that tip because it's very, very.

They're, they're great tips. And today we're going to talk about labor, your employees, the labor shortage that we're going through, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And how to manage it. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I have some things. In fact, I have a story to tell about how this topic sort of came to my mind. And I want to do that as soon as I tell you about our first sponsor here. If that works for you, Mr. Shannon Jean.

Yeah, let's do it. I love these guys.

All right. When running a business, HR issues can kill you. Things like minimum wage requirements, labor regulations, wrongful termination suits. You don't want any of that. And listen, HR manager salaries, they ain't cheap. An average of 70 grand a year. Well, our sponsor, Bambi, spelled B A M B E E, was created specifically for us. So small business owners, you know, those of us that are small businessing, every day you can get a dedicated HR manager, craft your HR policy and maintain your compliance, all for just $99 a month. I know, it's crazy. With Bambi, you can change HR from your biggest liability to your biggest strength. Your dedicated HR manager is available by phone, email, or even real time chat if you like. So from things like onboardings to terminations, they customize your policies to fit your business and help you manage your employees day to day, Again, all for just 99 bucks a month. It's a month to month. There's no hidden fees. You can cancel at any time. Listen, I know I didn't start my business because I wanted to spend all my time on HR compliance. And I don't think you did either. For the first time ever, Bambi is offering you a free trial@bambi.com smaller spelled B A M B E-E.com small. This is their best offer ever. If you've been listening to the show, you know that that's true. I'm Shocked. This is amazing. Start your free trial@bambi.com small and our thanks to Bambi for sponsoring this episode. All right, I have a story to share. I've already shared this with you, Shannon. That's how the topic came up the other night. My wife and daughter were going to go pick up Chipotle. I guess I had a gig. It finished at like 9 o' clock or something. It was a Saturday night, early and they knew that Chipotle was open till 10 and they asked me as they were because they came to watch the gig and they asked me, hey, you know, do you want me to get you anything? I'm like, yeah, sure, get me whatever, you know, whatever I normally get. I don't know, they know, which is fine. And then while I was packing up, right before I left, I got a text from them saying, oh, too bad Chipotle closed early. We'll see you at home. And it was very interesting to me because two years ago, if Chipotle had just decided, today we're closing early, that would have certainly shattered my, or at least shaken my confidence in them. Right? Yeah, right. But when my wife texted me, it was like, oh, okay, yeah, well, there's labor shortage and it's how things are.

We've been softened up.

Yeah, yeah, we've been softened up. And it was really interesting just to notice my reaction, my non reaction to that. It was like, oh, okay, no big deal, we got food at home, I can make nachos or whatever, I don't care, it's fine. I love having nachos after a gig, by the way. But that's a whole different story. And so as I was driving home, I thought, well, this is really interesting. Where are we with this and do we, does this, do we go back from this and how far back will we recover? And I'm not convinced that we're gonna recover too much. I think we're gonna continue at least for a while to be in this scenario of just accepting that. Yeah, especially the service industry is short staffed and that's just how it's gonna be. I don't think we recover from this.

Your thesis is that from now on we're going to be more, it's going to be more acceptable.

Yes.

And we're not going to react in it. And customers aren't going to react in a negative manner when they go to go to buy something, order something, get a service and there's basically a note.

We'Ve left for the day. Yeah, I really think so. I think we've learned patience. I know you're laughing at me because I don't think you agree.

No, I don't. I don't. Because I think that now I definitely think if we're in the middle of something, we've learned to adapt as a society, that, okay, hey, we're going through a pandemic, a slash, a hurricane slash, whatever, that if there is some extraneous event. I do agree with you because we're used to it.

Sure.

And.

But I think even once Covid becomes endemic, and I'm gonna predict that by April 1, we will be at a point where that has been accepted by the public. And I'm happy to have that conversation, but let's put a pin in that for now. I think it's a good conversation to have, but I think whenever that timeframe comes, and I could be wrong, but whenever that comes, I don't think this changes. I think we have. And the reason is we have learned that. We have learned to be more accommodating of service industry professionals, because I would agree with that. We are beholden to them. We know what it's like not to have anyone or not to have nearly enough people working in the service industry. And I think a large portion of the public, at varying degrees, has just taken that group of workers for granted, and that's gone. I don't think we take those people for granted anymore as much as we did. I'm sure some people do in various ways, but I think in general, we are far more in tune or aware. I don't even want to say in tune. We're far more aware of what that sector of workers goes through and how important they are. And I think they maintain the leverage here. They currently have the leverage. There's no question about that. But I think they maintain it.

Maybe. But I think that it's also an opportunity for other companies to figure out how not to encounter those kinds of things.

Sure.

Because I do. I think that people have short memories. Now, obviously, the catastrophe of COVID on a global scale is going to take, you know, a long time for people to kind of forget about how. The way things are. But they will forget how. The way how things are.

How long do you think that's going to take? I mean, are you. Are you talking months, Years? A decade?

No, not decades. I would say. I would say years.

Yeah.

Within. Within a couple of years of COVID being over. I believe we will be back to the same thing now, same place. I don't. Yeah, I don't think I don't believe those businesses are ever going to be the same. I will. I do agree that, yeah, business model is. Has to adapt and I believe that a lot of those. I have it in my notes here. I think we're in this era the end of cheap is how I phrased it.

I like. Oh, I like that.

It's the end of cheap and it's the end of subsidized things. Like, I mean, have you booked an Uber lately or done Doordash lately and seen the difference in pricing at least in California?

Oh, no, we have it here. There's a Wings place down the street from us. And this is fits into this whole mindset here that we've been ordering from with Doordash, you know, throughout the pandemic. And then I went to order from him, I don't know, a couple of months ago and it was like, why am I paying $90? Like what's going on here?

Exactly.

And I looked at their website and their website pricing was what I expected to pay. Doordash pricing was far more. And so it was like, oh, the restaurant has chosen not to eat Doordash's fees.

Correct.

And I think that's fine.

Everything's changing. It is. It's better for the rest, obviously.

No, it's better to just be transparent about it. What I don't like is that DoorDash charges me a fee and also charges the restaurant. It reminds me of the magazine industry. It's like, well, you want me to subscribe and then you're also getting advertising. Like, can we be a little more transparent about what that looks like to me? Right. You know, how does that fit? And yeah, no, I think it's. I think it's good in a.

It is. I think it is. I mean, we're gonna pay for it. But.

No, but as a business owner, I like that the public is forced to be more self aware. It reminds me sort of of a complaint that I remain that remains for me with the healthcare industry. Right. Go to your car mechanic, have them diagnose a problem and then tell you what you need to do to fix it. And one of the first things they tell you, because it is literally mandated by law, is how much they will charge you to do that repair. Now it might be a flat rate, it might be, you know, flat rate for parts or whatever, you know, time and materials kind of thing, but they have to tell you what their, what their hourly rate is and all that stuff.

You wouldn't do it.

You wouldn't do it. It'd be crazy if they said, we'll fix it now and tell you the price in a month. And yet, that latter example is exactly what happens when you go to the doctor.

Ridiculous.

I've had doctors, I've had what we now would call bronze plan health insurance. If you relate it to the ACA type plans. I've had emergency catastrophic health insurance with a $12,000 deductible for the year for the family. I've had that for 20 years because it's always cheaper for me. Long before there was ACA was even dreamed of, those were the plans I was buying. I had a spreadsheet. I would actually regression test my health costs against my prior year's health costs against the plans I was considering each year. And every year I really wanted to have a plan where I paid $20 every time I went to the doctor. But it was never going to be economical. It was so ridiculous. And we even chose a plan that doesn't have maternity care. It has complications of pregnancy, but not maternity. Because it was. It would cost me. Maternity is a flat rate expense at. At most doctors. Right. They it complications add to that. But that would be covered by my insurance. But the flat rate expense was about 60% of what I would have paid in one year's extra premiums.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So like. So I would do this every year. So I've had that plan for a long time.

But.

But what it means is I go to the doctor, they say, oh, you have no copay. And I say, that's right. I'm just gonna pay you whatever your negotiated rate with my insurance company is. Can you tell me what that is? And it was like I asked them to solve world hunger. Like, they looked at me like it was an impossible request, but at some point they were gonna have that answer. Cause they were gonna bill me. I know, it's crazy. So I like that we are in a scen now where people are becoming more aware, forced to become more aware in some ways of the cost structure of how these things work. Yeah, I like it. I think it's fair.

I do too. I mean, I go back, we'll jump back to shipping for a minute. There is no such thing as free shipping, right?

Of course not.

It does not exist. It is being packaged in a different way. And I will never forgive Amazon for hoisting this onto the market marketplace the way they did. But I respect the way they did it. You know, charging money in the background and then. And then also, you know, increasing the value of a Prime membership over time, which I would argue is probably, you know, worth a lot more than just the shipping.

The world's best loyalty program. It's crazy.

Yes, yes. Yeah. So I think that, you know, we're going to see it and let's talk for a few minutes about the why we think there's this labor shortage here. I have some, some ideas. I'm certainly no expert, but I, I, I pay a close attention to this stuff. So I'd love to get your, your thoughts on some of this stuff.

Absolutely.

I think low to mid range jobs are, have been hit the hardest. Entry level jobs for sure.

Yeah.

One of the things I've noticed, at least in my area is far less kids work in the service businesses or whether it's fast food or whether it's delivery things we're talking about or whatever. Many more kids in our area are pushed either academically or sports or things that would otherwise take up all their time where they would want to work and make some extra money. The place that does have a bunch of kids working has always paid more than other places and that's In N Out. In N Out Burger here on the West Coast. These, you know, the starting pay has been 15 to 18 bucks forever. It's been just that way. Yeah. And so they're enticed to go in there. But a lot of the other places I notice has become more of, you know, career thing and also a different demographic. It's also, you know, a number of immigration, you know, folks, immigrants that have taken those jobs. And I look at, during COVID our legal immigration slowed down.

Oh, tremendously. Yeah, of course. Right.

So that, that labor pool that's usually coming in that may have filled some of those positions at Chipotle or wherever they're, they're just not as available right now. I think we're, you know, we're feeling that and then, you know, we're going through this thing. They call it like the great resignation and this kind of thing, which I think is kind of a not quite the way to that's really going on. People are leaving for higher paying jobs.

Yes.

Right. They're going to, I read an article, you know, about a maid at, you know, a small hotel chain that was getting paid like, I don't know, eight or nine bucks an hour to clean. And you know, the target right down the street is entry. Come in, start working. It's like $18 an hour. Well, that, because Target has more resources and they're hurting for labor and they're going to keep Raising. They're going to reach this equilibrium. Right. And they're going to pass those costs on to us eventually. Right? We're going to do it.

Yeah.

Another thing I've read about is interesting.

Yeah. Okay. So you think that the reason for this labor shortage reasons are immigration, lack of kids working.

I think those are two large impacts.

I think top two.

I don't know about top two, but I don't know if I can qualify them. But I also think there's a few more. During the pandemic, people saved a lot more money. They didn't travel as much. Plus they got some stimulus money in some cases, very significant, some cases still getting it in the form of like a child tax credit and some other things. State of California sending out money that has allowed people that would have gone back into the workforce to stay home longer. And I think we're still feeling the effects of that. Right.

Interesting.

Yeah. One of the things I really was glad to see is that in 2021, more people started their own businesses after leaving working for other people. 1.5 million new companies started in 2021, the highest on record. That's according to the U.S. census website, highest ever recorded. So a lot of those people that have left have gone out on their own, said, you know what, I'm not making much money or I want to start up something. And whether it's online, on their own, the side maybe, you know, a lot more of the side hustles, maybe became full time gigs, which I think is great.

And you think that, that you think that's. Yeah, I think you're probably right. That that's pulling out of the workforce.

Yeah. Level. Not maybe on an entry level or a lower end service level, but.

Right.

Certainly on a mid level. That people are like, you know, I don't want to do this anymore. You know how many times I've heard people tell me now that they stayed home, worked from home for a year and a half or whatever with COVID they're like, I'm never going back to the office.

Right.

I'm never spending two and a half, three hours a day. Especially I'm in the Bay Area. People, you know, going from my town down to Silicon Valley, you know, it's. They're spending three hours a day in the car. That's miserable. And people, my friends that I talked to say, no, I'm never going back. If they won't continue, maybe they go back one day a week, a couple days a week, if they do. But they're like, if I Can't continue to work the way I'm doing. I'm going to find another job.

Yeah, that's interesting. That's interesting. Yeah. Because I mean, because unemployment is low, right? Super low. Yeah.

But it doesn't tell the whole story.

No, I don't think it does. Because how long? Like once someone is out of the workforce for X number of months, they're considered retired, not unemployed.

Yep.

Okay.

Not seeking employment.

Not seeking employment. That's the difference is if they're not seeking employment, they're not considered unemployed. Okay. After a certain period of time. Yeah.

Right. And then lastly, I just learned about this the other day. I was reading about employment and different things and hiring. Most large companies use kind of an automated filtering for resumes. Especially if you're, you know, on one of those sites like Indeed or whatever, those LinkedIn jobs, all that stuff. These big companies are using AI to filter resumes. And one of the top things they do to filter out resumes is they often eliminate anyone that has been out of work over six months.

Okay. All right.

I had no idea. So in, in this one study that I think it was Harvard business review did, 48% of resumes were being just flushed out automatically because people had been out of work longer than six months and the software had not been adjusted to take it into account like Covid or different things like that. So a lot of people are just getting kind of. Because there's. You talk to people and I've had this conversation like I'm having a hard time find it, finding a job. You know, I'm having a hard time finding, finding a position and albeit it's a position that they want. But. And you know, some of it might come down to that. So there's a, it's not just one thing. You know, you get a sound bite on, you know, from the so called news media that points fingers at, you know, whatever. But it's a bunch of different things and I think some of those things I just mentioned encapsulate what's going on.

That makes sense. Okay. Yeah. No, okay. Yeah, right. That explains the reason for this.

It's different. It's different this time, I think too.

Yeah, well, and there's a lot of, you know, to your point about kids not being in the workforce, I mean a lot of kids have aged out of being kids. I know that sounds weird, but that's a truth. That's how it works. And I think younger, the kids that would have gone in and taken those jobs certainly last year weren't all that eager to leave the house and go get jobs.

Yeah.

They never started, so you can't, they're not considered unemployed if they've never looked for work. It's just not right.

But I think I hear often about this, you know, workers revolution or this anti work movement, this kind of thing. And, and that sounds all well and good until you have to pay your rent.

Yeah.

Until you're not getting subsidies and this. We. So I believe, just like I believe we will go back to normal at being frustrated when things don't work out and businesses close early. I believe in a short period of time, maybe a year, maybe two.

Sure.

This will reach an equilibrium and, and it won't be just an employee's market as much. It will balance itself out.

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

Yeah. That doesn't solve the problem today, right?

No, no, it doesn't change any of the things we're talking about. It just.

Yeah. So if we, if, if, if we have a little more time, we can talk about how, how to attract and keep the employees you do have. Right.

I like it. Yeah. No, we've got, I mean, we're at the 29 minute mark. Do you want to like that? That would normally be where we would, you know, start to bring the band in.

Let's go. We had some good responses from the survey, said people like things a little.

Bit, a little bit longer.

Let's talk for a few more minutes. You can try to.

Yeah.

You can try to hold me back.

Okay.

I don't go too deep, but. So here's, here's some ideas. Now first off, every business is different. You have to craft your own strategy. But I believe one thing every business can do special, particularly small businesses, is you have to sell your culture. You have to flip the script in interviews and when you're trying to track people is you have to share how great it is to work at your company. It's, you know, especially when you're, you know, talent is limited. You're going to have to, hey, look, this is why you should come here. You know, you really need to talk about the flexibility because that's what people really want right now. Especially after coming off of maybe working from home or something.

Yeah, right, right.

You know, can you let people work, share, where two people could share one position, you know, can they do part time, can they remote, can they work from home part time or, you know, full time, all that kind of thing. I think it's really important to lean into that. One of the things we talk about on this show frequently is identifying your primary customer and then building this model around who you should be focusing your marketing on. Well, I would argue that you need to find the same a primary employee type that you need to focus your marketing of. Job positions open. What do those people want that you're trying to bring in and focus on those things, whether you're, you know, going through resumes, LinkedIn, whether you're at a recruiting fair, whatever it is, what type of employee. If you're looking for engineers, well, they're going to want something different than creative types if you're marketing, you know, department. So really figure it out. Who is our primary. Who is the, the target employee? We. And fine tune that message to those people.

Huh. So, and well, you know, we've had LinkedIn jobs on the show as a sponsor and they talk about. And I've used it right, like those questionnaires and things like that to really kind of narrow people down. I always hear that from my own perspective as the employer. But now that I'm hearing what you're saying and switching to the other side of the table, so to speak, it's like, if I'm an employee, those questions are informative to me. Will I get to the end of answering them or will I bail because you've made it clear that I'm not interested in you.

Yeah, that's right. You do have to flip the script here and change the way I think we've been hiring at least to get through this, this shortage of people, you know, because it. Yes. You know, you have to pay a competitive salary and you have to ask yourself, can you pay more right now? You know, can you adjust your business model, you know, if you rely on cheap labor, you know, maybe you need to rethink that strategy and try to, try to move up in the food chain if you want. And you know, but your culture, your flexibility, your, the opportunities for advancement that you offer. Maybe it's autonomy. I mean, are there programmers you're hiring or engineers or whoever that just want to be left alone and, and be able to, you know, build something that you're telling them to do? Well, talk that up. It's like, hey, you could, we'll hire you, but you can be your own business unit within our company, whatever. I don't, I don't.

Yeah, right. Whatever that is.

You got to think about different ways to do it. I also think you ought to look at places to hire older workers. I think they're vastly underutilized demographic people that have left the workplace Maybe during COVID and have not come back yet. How do you, how can you target those folks? Because some of those, some of those people are great. A lot of them are great to work with. They have a different outlook on things. They've been, you know, they've kind of been to the circus. They know how this works. Maybe as. I don't want to use the word demanding, but I will. There may be easier to create an environment where they can be happy. And it's something to look at. I think that's, that's really important to look at this, you know, an older demographic and, and I think that we talked about, we've talked about this a lot. Being transparent when it comes to the money and, and the revenue your company generates, if you can be more transparent with your employees, it's going to be easier to keep those folks. If they think you're taking all the profits out of the business and not leaving much for them on the table, and they look down the street and, you know, I had lots of people that were working for us that were leaving for Tesla and I couldn't figure it out because they weren't making hard, basically. No, no more money. By the time they commuted down to Fremont from the East Bay and I finally realized they wanted to be able to tell people, I work for Tesla. That was it.

That was it.

And, and they felt they had more opportunity. Right. Oh, I can move up whether. Even if you're starting as a line worker, that kind of thing. So think about.

Oh, right. Because Tesla, you know, you, you, you could, you could. I mean, you're not going to get to be the CEO. But no, you know, there's, there is, there are people making lots of money at the top. Presumably that's the vision of it.

Presumably. So you think.

Yes, so I have, I have more potential for advancement in that company. And that may or may not be correct. Right.

But yeah, but it was also just the name. So you got to think about.

Yeah, no, I get that. Yeah, right.

Like that credibility, like, wow, that guy works for Tesla. Whether you're just a guy screwing on a body panel, that's going down the line, I don't know. But you get to talk different. And that sounded better, I don't know why. Than saying you worked for Tech Restore.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe we needed a better logo. I don't know. Know. But anyway, that's okay. No, no, no.

So that's, I mean, that's interesting. Like.

I couldn't figure it out. No, I really broke it down and Talked to a lot of people about it because like I said, it was the, the cost benefit or the, the salary was. I basically, they were going to make less by the time they drove, you know, an hour each way and sat in their car versus, you know, a, a 10 minute commute to come work for me.

So you need to like you. I mean, this is awful that this is the case, but it is the case where a company who is doing literally worldwide pr, Tesla, is competing for the same employees that you are, which means you don't. The good news is you didn't, you wouldn't have to do worldwide pr, but you do have to do some local PR to those employees, not necessarily to your potential customers, although they're one in the same. Right. You don't get to pick who your VR targets. I mean, you sort of can, but not really. So you have to create this image for your company even if you have more customers than you know what to do with. Especially in fact, if you have more customers than you know what to do with because generally that's because you don't have enough staff to do anything with them. Right. In order to attract that staff, you've got to do some PR locally to make it so that when people hear, oh, Tech Restore is hiring. And I realize you've sold Tech Restore, but, but, you know, the example here.

Yeah.

Is you need to, you need to, people need to know your name somehow and want to work for you.

And one of the best ways to do that PR is with your other employees. So I would say your interview process, if you want to mix it up, you want to be sure there's an opportunity for the interviewee to speak to other employees without you in the room. And you want to let them tell this potential hire how come they should work there and why it's a great place to work and the fact that you've created this great culture and you're really flexible and you're not going to miss your kids, you know, play or music recital because you're drilling body panels on the line at Tesla. But when you work here, you come in to say, hey, can I take off at 3 o'? Clock? Because I don't want to miss this thing for my kid. Yes, absolutely. So you have to turn everybody in your organization, they become marketers, they're part of the marketing department to find, to bring in these people that you want to hire. Even if you're paying a little bit less than some of these big companies, there's a way to get them in the door. If that's your primary type of employee that values that flexibility, there's always going to be the person that just goes for the money.

Sure.

I would argue that's not the employee you want to hire.

Oh, like if. Yeah. If that's the person, run, run, run, run. Because they will leave. Like, loyalty is not going to be part of that equation. And it's certainly not from their standpoint. And so there's no reason to extend it from yours. Yeah.

And I would argue older workers appreciate that more. If you can target that sort of demographic. Sure. Someone who's worked and in. Someone who's been in the rat race for years.

Yeah.

Low experience and again, values that. Wow, you know, this is great. I can do this, I can do that. If you can attract those kinds of people. Because I do think there will be a tremendous surge of retirees, quote, retirees returning to the workforce as. Especially as inflation is nuts and cost of living is very expensive.

Yeah.

More and more of those people are going to be returning. And you can't just automatically think you're going to hire some young person that's going to have more energy or whatever, less ties to, you know, they need less time to do whatever. Be flexible. No, no. Go the other way and lean into somebody who's got that experience that maybe just wants to come back and earn. Maybe your job becomes their side hustle. Right. They want to be flexible and spend time with their. Or their kids are gone or maybe they have grandkids or something like that. Think about this differently and craft a marketing program to attract somebody that is going to be a real asset for you and understand and value your culture.

I like it. Yeah.

That's my take on it. And I'd love to hear your thoughts. Feedbackusshow co. Tell me what I got wrong, what I got right, and you know, tell us what you're doing to bring people to work and share it with us. Either email US or at BusinessShow Co Facebook. Come over and talk with us in the small business support group.

In the group. Yeah. Yeah. No, you've given me a lot to think about here. That's interesting.

It's complex. There's a lot to it. You know, it's not a soundbite.

No, no, it's not. It doesn't make me. It makes me envious of people that aren't in, that aren't running businesses that need to employ people. But, you know, like, I mean, with one of my businesses we were using, in fact, somebody that I met here on the show the hire smart virtual employee people found us someone in the Philippines who has been fantastic for several years now. That's not always going to be the case. Like you couldn't have hired remote workers at Tech Restore to repair the things that were being shipped to you. Right? But yeah, interesting. Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We live in interesting times.

We do. Yeah. But I like that it's good because it, it means that those of us that well, simply being aware of these issues gives us a leg up. So kudos, kudos to you for listening to this show. Right. And then helping to solve these problems. So yeah, let us know feedbackus show co we want to hear from you. It'd be great because we want your solutions on this too. You are important to us. Absolutely. Check out bambi.comsmall and keep living that charmed life. We'll see you next week.