Top Tips to Boost Team Loyalty with Smart Pay Practices

Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. In today's episode, I'm going to answer a question from one of my Facebook readers, Amir, who wrote in asking about when people he works with demand money from him, what should he do? So a little bit confused by this question. There's a couple of ways to, to handle it, so hopefully there's some help in here for you, Amir. The two people, or two groups The two groups of people who usually ask for money would be your employees, the people who work with you, or your suppliers who are supplying you products and services. In terms of the employees, hopefully you've worked out some kind of payment schedule, right? They get paid on an hourly basis or a monthly contract or whatever it is, so you've got to know in advance when people are getting paid and how much. If they're asking for an advance, that's something you can think about, you know, see if they're a star employee and worth doing it. What I found, at least with my team, I've done it a couple times and I found it really helps build the loyalty. Somebody's really in a bind and it can be embarrassing to come and ask your boss for an advance. You know, you don't want to acknowledge that you're down on your luck and you need money. So I try to be supportive and I've given advances a couple times. People don't abuse that and you win their loyalty. They really appreciate it and they want to work extra hard for you. If you say no, then they feel defeated and deflated and are less likely to give it their best. So I would say try to do it if you can. It really depends on your cash flow situation as well, but I try to make it work if I can. If it becomes an ongoing repeat thing, then it may be something that you need to look at with them. And if that employee is a good employee and is going to be a fit long-term, try to get them some help or understand what situation they're going through. Going through. If it's a supplier, then again, you should have some kind of arrangement in place for, you know, you pay within 30 days or 60 days or on delivery or whatever it is. So hopefully you've signed some kind of agreement before, you know, so you both understand the terms and when you have to make payment. What I try to do with suppliers, if it's a big supplier, if it's a huge company, then I could try to push the time as much as I can, but if it's a small company, I always try to pay them on time as much as possible. That's not always possible, but I always try to make sure they're paid really quickly because as you, as an entrepreneur, you understand how important cash flow is. And you'll often be told by experts that a great way to improve your cash flow is to push out your suppliers. So instead of paying right away, pay on 60 days. So you get that 60 days extra buffer to be able to maintain your cash flow. And while that That's true, what I found is the small guys really hurt from that. If there's a small company that really depends on your business and you're stretching them out, they're really going to suffer for that. So what I want is loyalty from my suppliers and I want to— when I have a crisis, I want them to really jump on board and help me out as much as possible. So I pay them right away. Where their other clients may drag them out, I'm paying on time, as soon as I get the invoice. Even earlier than when they say it's due, because they're gonna love working for me. And then if I have a big problem, if I need them, which is gonna happen eventually with different suppliers, then they're gonna jump on the ball and wanna help out in whatever way they can because they want to keep the business, they love working with me. It's not always possible depending on your cash flow situation, but I try to make this work as much as I can because it really wins the loyalty of those smaller guys, because you really feel it. You feel that they appreciate the business and it really impacts them if you stretch out those payments. If it's a big company, they're not going to care, right? You try to stretch it out as long as you can because you're not really going to have an impact on their business. They won't act any faster if you have a crisis if you pay them right away or not. You don't have a strong relationship, so they're not going to be impacted as much. So I'd say try to negotiate as great a deal as you can with the bigger companies, but the little guys, try to pay as soon as you can. Hopefully that helps answer your question. I'd love to hear what you guys have to think. If you want to leave a comment on the video or you have your own thoughts or your own question, please leave a comment. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. I love seeing those come in and it makes me want to do more of these videos for you guys. So thank you and we'll see you on the next episode.