How to structure Profit Sharing w staff/employees????

[Shane H.]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this or not.  

Our ALF business will end 2018 doing better than i expected.  I'm owed a lot of cash at this point - didnt blow it out of the water I'm sure by some folks standards but on paper it's better than I've ever done in my life.  Still pay myself what I consider a modest salary and my couple splurges this year was an economical family vacation to Colorado for a week (done on a tight budget like I always do - first vacay in 2-3 years) and a maybe once in a lifetime antelope hunt I was offered) and then a used vehicle so I actually have room to have staff with me and not have to ask them to drive.  I'll continue to do that next year with our only goal of updating the small house we live in now and adding a storage shed.

I went into this not quite knowing how I'd do things but in the back of my mind I always had the intentions of when I owned a business be it a full fledged RE investment only business or this ALF business I'd give some of the profits to the staff/team members.

I have no idea how to structure it and how much to give to staff/keep in the business -  my idea was to try to pay out 10% profits to the staff - 3.5% to our exec director, 1.5% to our nurse and either 3% or 5% split up and paid to our hourly staff.  If we hit our #'s for next year it will be a big bump (imo) to our exec directors salary (it would equal 20% of her pay with the ability to go higher if she helps me get our revenues higher yet.)

When I sell the company at some point in the future I'd like to give some back to staff to - not sure how to do that either but hopefully I have some time to figure that out.

Anyways - curious if others have thought about working up a similar thing or worked in a company that did that.  I feel it's the right thing to do - I only took this path to gain my freedom and my sanity - so far I've done so - and without our team I wouldnt have that and I feel they should reap some of the rewards.  

Hoping to grow this business and add 1-2 more buildings in 2019 then start investing in residential or commercial Re with extra cash and grow that part of my business to the scale I've always wanted and then start a sharing program there.

If anyone can help me find the article or a long shot knows the guy - I remember a few newspaper articles about a guy on the east coast (I think) that owned a # of grocery stores and when he retired he transferred ownership of the company to the employees.  i'd love to pick that guys brain and buy him coffee.

TIA

[Teri Feeney Styers]

@Shane H. I used to own a small grocery. Traditionally turnover in that business is terrible - but not for me. One year I had 100% retention. I'm going to challenge you a little... That support staff is also critical to your business, does some crummy jobs, and I understand that (anecdotally) wages generally aren't very good. In my grocery business I had a tiered wage system plus bonuses. Simple math again. I hired a new person they started at let's say $8 per hour. If they stayed for 3 months then I RETROACTIVELY raised the wage to say $8.50 per hour - so there was an incentive to stick around. I did the same thing at 6 months and 1 year. This helped a lot with retention and the other problems associated with constantly training new staff. Of course I also gave some bonuses, occasional gifts, and other perks to show them how much I appreciated their hard work. Low budget recognition can go a long way...