ForumsManaging Employees and HR

There was a guy I heard about who owned a hot dog stand at Venice Beach. His business was thriving. He advertised in a local paper, had four employees and sold hot dogs, pretzels and cold drinks at a stead pace for ten to twelve hours a day, depending on the season. This guy was doing really well. Then, one day his nephew, a financial analyst of some kind, was visiting and told him there was an economic slow down starting and that he should cut back his hours, lay off at least one employee and cut back on the advertising to save money as he was going to make a lot less sales. "People don't want to spend money on hot dogs when the economy is bad." The guy followed his nephew's advice and laid off one of his employees, cut his ad budget in half, and closed promptly at 6PM every day.

About a month later his nephew called to see how he was doing. The guy thanked him and explained to the nephew that he had been right. "I'm glad I did what you told me. Sales are way down since we last talked. I don't know what I would do now if I had to pay that extra person and all those ads, not to mention operating costs for staying open so late. I guess I dodged the bullet."

Nick

Caffeinated,

How did everything turn out? Did they close either of those two shops near you? Will you have to terminate any positions at your shop due to the economy?

Interpreter,

Sorry for the late response. Unfortunately Starbucks didn't close those two storefronts. I'm not going to lie, I did get my hopes up. Eh, what are you gonna do ya know...business as usual. Still working at full force though. I have good people and I would do anything to keep them on.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. How is your interpreting business going?

-caffeinated

Yes, I'm a Baskin Robbins franchisee, and no I haven't had the "talk" with the two students I have left to lay off, but they know. I've already laid off 3 in the past two weeks all of which were chosen to go because they would be the least effective in the winter months. Two more will go right after the next holiday, but in their case I'll ask if they'd like to remain on call.