Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring. And today I'm
Speaker 1: recording on a wobbaicle land. Now, this episode in particular
Speaker 1: that you're listening to is coming out during the Chrissy
Speaker 1: Slash holiday break, and some podcasts take a break during
Speaker 1: the Christmas break, but there's no break for me when
Speaker 1: it comes to Big Business. I'm coming out with these episodes,
Speaker 1: but I thought I would mention I'm recording these from
Speaker 1: home and the quality may not be exactly the same
Speaker 1: as when I'm in the studio, but hopefully it will do.
Speaker 1: In today's episode, I'm going to be answering some juicy
Speaker 1: questions that you sent through. I did little question box
Speaker 1: on my Instagram story and by the way, I thought
Speaker 1: I would also mention I have a podcast Instagram page
Speaker 1: for Big Business, So if you look up Big Business
Speaker 1: podcast on Insta, I mean, feel free to give me
Speaker 1: a follow on there, or you don't have to if
Speaker 1: you don't want. But if you ever have a question
Speaker 1: for me and you would like me to answer it
Speaker 1: on the pod, or maybe you've got like a sona
Speaker 1: or you want advice on something I love doing these
Speaker 1: kinds of episodes where I'm quite literally answering the questions
Speaker 1: or scenarios or dilemmas that you have for me. Send
Speaker 1: me a DM on that account because I don't get
Speaker 1: anywhere near as many messages on that account as I
Speaker 1: do on my main one. So if you've ever got
Speaker 1: a question, slide into my Big Business Podcast dms and
Speaker 1: let me know, because I love giving the listeners what
Speaker 1: they want. Question number one, Are you against your staff
Speaker 1: discussing their wages? Absolutely not. They're more than welcome to
Speaker 1: discuss whatever they want with one another. And I have
Speaker 1: heard I have heard stories like I don't like. I'm
Speaker 1: sure they're true, but I've heard stories that some companies
Speaker 1: have written it into their contracts that they're not allowed
Speaker 1: kind of thing. And I don't know is that legal
Speaker 1: or not. I don't know, but we've never had any
Speaker 1: type of conversation like that with any of our team members.
Speaker 1: It's not written anywhere. They can do whatever they want,
Speaker 1: they can talk about whatever they want. And I think
Speaker 1: that's another thing too. People are going to talk like
Speaker 1: coworkers are going to talk, especially when they become friendly
Speaker 1: with one another, and you can't really stop that, And
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know about the companies that have
Speaker 1: written it into their contracts, like you must not discuss
Speaker 1: your wage with someone else, But like I think people
Speaker 1: are still going to talk regardless. So no, that's never
Speaker 1: been an issue for us, and we've never had any
Speaker 1: issues with that. And do our staff talk about their
Speaker 1: wages with one another? Most likely, I'd say, but that's
Speaker 1: fine by me. We've never had to have that conversation
Speaker 1: or thought. But it's a very good question. The next
Speaker 1: question comes from the same person. Shout out to this person,
Speaker 1: you were sending me very juicy questions, And this question
Speaker 1: is how many people have you fired? And was it
Speaker 1: hard or easy? If I had to go back and think,
Speaker 1: I want to say like less than five or it
Speaker 1: could be like less than three. In my experience what
Speaker 1: I've personally found, and I don't know if I can
Speaker 1: for every other business owner, but when you're dealing with
Speaker 1: a staff member who is heading down like the wrong
Speaker 1: kind of way within your business, oftentimes in my experience,
Speaker 1: they'll leave before you have to terminate their position. I
Speaker 1: think just because like they would be aware of whatever's
Speaker 1: happened or what's been going on, kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, you know, I find that
Speaker 1: they kind of take themselves out of the company anyway.
Speaker 1: So we've definitely experienced that quite a few times. But
Speaker 1: when it's come to actually like actually firing people, like
Speaker 1: I want to say, three times over the seven years
Speaker 1: I have along, we've been gone for now, like it's
Speaker 1: really not many. But in saying that, like, what we
Speaker 1: have dealt with more than firing people is just like
Speaker 1: dealing with little like conflicts and you know, having to
Speaker 1: issue warning letters or just having like you know, a
Speaker 1: non disciplinary meeting like if something is popped up, and
Speaker 1: like I want to say that, like that is harder
Speaker 1: than actually having to terminate someone's position. Now, I'm not
Speaker 1: the best person obviously to talk about firing people because
Speaker 1: I really don't have that much experience compared to some
Speaker 1: people who I don't know work for huge companies and
Speaker 1: they fire people every left, right, and center, every second
Speaker 1: day of the week. I don't know, So I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm not the best person to give full advice
Speaker 1: on it. But I can definitely talk to the point
Speaker 1: of like having to have tough conversations and the times
Speaker 1: that we have had to terminate people's positions. I feel
Speaker 1: like the word fired is so harsh, Like it's so harsh,
Speaker 1: I'd rather say, like, terminate your position with us. It's
Speaker 1: definitely not it's not easy. It's not fun. Even just
Speaker 1: on the topic of like having to have a non
Speaker 1: disciplinary meeting with someone, like, it's never fun. Like everyone
Speaker 1: can feel nervous. And most of the time people when
Speaker 1: they're being offered one of those meetings, you know they
Speaker 1: know so what you're going to be talking about, because
Speaker 1: maybe something's happened in the workplace. You need to sit
Speaker 1: down and say, look, like this has happened, and here's
Speaker 1: how we're going to move forward. They're never easy, But
Speaker 1: in my experience, I will say what I have been
Speaker 1: surprised by is when you do have a hard conversation.
Speaker 1: By the way, one of my favorite sayings of all
Speaker 1: time is hard conversations, easy life. Easy conversations, hard life.
Speaker 1: Like that is my life fucking motto. You've just got
Speaker 1: to have a hard conversation, even if it feels like
Speaker 1: makes you feel sick and you can't sleep the night before.
Speaker 1: As soon as you have that hard conversation, you'll have
Speaker 1: an easy life. And if you just go through life
Speaker 1: and through business, having easy conversations all the time, aka
Speaker 1: avoiding all those things that you need to talk about,
Speaker 1: you're going to have a hard time. And that's definitely
Speaker 1: what I've learned. But in my experience with just like
Speaker 1: having those awkward conversations, you know, in previous years, I'm
Speaker 1: always like pleasantly surprised by people and how willing they
Speaker 1: are to come to the table, even if you're like
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk to this person because this
Speaker 1: thing has happened, and you know, emotions are high. But
Speaker 1: I think if you approach a meeting in the right way,
Speaker 1: maybe you have to talk about something that's happened that
Speaker 1: someone's upset about or whatever it may be, like nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten, like everyone's really understanding, and especially
Speaker 1: if you're approaching the team member from like a friendly angle,
Speaker 1: Like anytime we've ever had to speak to someone, like
Speaker 1: I'm not going in to yell at them and say this,
Speaker 1: that and the other, you know, like I'm always just
Speaker 1: super friendly and I just want to like talk about
Speaker 1: everything that's happened and honestly like come up with the
Speaker 1: solution so that we can all continue working together. And
Speaker 1: you can usually work it out so that it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to get to that point of ever needing to
Speaker 1: terminate someone. And when it comes to terminating someone, like
Speaker 1: if they're a full time worker or part time. Don't
Speaker 1: quote me on that, but you've obviously got to do
Speaker 1: everything correctly. You know, people have to be given multiple
Speaker 1: warnings before you even get to the point of like
Speaker 1: needing to think about terminating someone. So we've definitely done
Speaker 1: a few of those over the years, like handing out
Speaker 1: a warning letter, which is not fun. And like I've
Speaker 1: said that in those instances, like, look, this isn't fun
Speaker 1: for me, and I don't want to be doing this,
Speaker 1: and I know it isn't fun for you. But again,
Speaker 1: like I come to those experiences like wanting to turn
Speaker 1: it around and wanting to move forward and work together,
Speaker 1: you know. But again I have only dealt with this
Speaker 1: like less than a handful of times, So I don't
Speaker 1: think I'm the best best person to talk about it.
Speaker 1: But maybe one day I could get a guest on
Speaker 1: this pod who is like really experienced in like the
Speaker 1: whole firing and tough conversation side. But yeah, it definitely
Speaker 1: is a great character building experience to deal with hard
Speaker 1: times with staff within your business, you learn a lot
Speaker 1: about yourself, you learn a lot about your business, and
Speaker 1: you learn about what you can improve on and fix
Speaker 1: or tweak to ensure that those things never happen again.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's my answer to that question. That was
Speaker 1: a good one. The next question is just a change
Speaker 1: of pace. It's a really fun little one. Would you
Speaker 1: employ older women in your stores? Absolutely? I would love that.
Speaker 1: We don't have an age range. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think you can. I don't think you can specify an
Speaker 1: age range when you're looking for a staff member. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure that would be illegal or something. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I would love to have people of all different
Speaker 1: ages working at Fate and that's something that we are
Speaker 1: definitely not opposed to. Do you want to apply, by
Speaker 1: the way, we always advertise our positions on SEK, just
Speaker 1: thought I would give a shout out there. I don't
Speaker 1: think we have any openings at the moment, but we
Speaker 1: have a Sikh profile and you can check out our
Speaker 1: listings and openings on there anytime we post an ad.
Speaker 1: The next question goes back to staffing. I feel like
Speaker 1: this is a staffing themed Q and a so someone's
Speaker 1: asked two questions, what are your top tips for small
Speaker 1: businesses hiring staff for the first time, And do you
Speaker 1: think it's best to hire someone with zero experience and
Speaker 1: train them up or with experience. That's a good one
Speaker 1: and a tough one. I'm pretty sure I've done a
Speaker 1: bunch of episodes over the year where I've talked about hiring.
Speaker 1: It's so hard when we do so many episodes, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm going to repeat myself every now and then.
Speaker 1: My top tips for a small business hiring staff for
Speaker 1: the first time. Jeez, if I could go back and
Speaker 1: do my business all over again, I would do everything differently.
Speaker 1: When I first started Fate, I was super young. I
Speaker 1: was in my early to mid twenties. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: still young now, but I would honestly chuck up and
Speaker 1: add online. Or I would put a little photo on
Speaker 1: Instagram saying we're hiring. I would get people's resumes, I
Speaker 1: would meet them once and say you're hired, and usually
Speaker 1: I would base that off how well I got along
Speaker 1: with them, which just isn't the right way to hire. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that you're going to get
Speaker 1: along with this person. If you're going to be working
Speaker 1: with them. But I think I was seeing it more
Speaker 1: personally than I should have been. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're great, You're fine, we laughing, Jogan, You're hired. And
Speaker 1: I think every business owner goes through that. You just
Speaker 1: go for like the easy higher that seems fun, and
Speaker 1: most of the time it doesn't work out. So my
Speaker 1: top tips would be obviously put up an ad somewhere,
Speaker 1: go through people's resumes, do a zoom call with them
Speaker 1: first or Google meet whatever, and then do a second
Speaker 1: interview in person. People can be completely different on a
Speaker 1: call than they are in person, so it always advise
Speaker 1: doing two interviews. And my final piece of advice is
Speaker 1: if you have any inkling of doubt, even just one
Speaker 1: little thing that you notice in the interview that makes
Speaker 1: you like, question, oh, I don't know because they said
Speaker 1: that one thing and it was weird, don't go ahead
Speaker 1: with the higher like because most of the time, like
Speaker 1: when you get a little feeling or your gut feeling,
Speaker 1: it's always bloody right. Call reference checks if you have to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that just depends on how big
Speaker 1: of a role it is. And if they're just coming
Speaker 1: in through you know, a casual employment, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: need to call their references. But if it's kind of
Speaker 1: more of an important role, or they're going to be
Speaker 1: working five days a week and like running your business,
Speaker 1: maybe you will want to call a reference check and
Speaker 1: just ask great questions in the interview. I think it's
Speaker 1: good to have a balance of personal questions so you
Speaker 1: can get to know them a little bit better, and
Speaker 1: also more like role and business focused questions, and always
Speaker 1: end your interview asking if they have any questions for you.
Speaker 1: I think it's always a really good indicator when you're
Speaker 1: interviewing someone if they come prepared with a question for you,
Speaker 1: I think that says a lot about someone. That's what
Speaker 1: I think anyway. I love it when someone finishes an
Speaker 1: interview and then they've got a couple of questions up
Speaker 1: their sleeve for us as well. On to the second
Speaker 1: part of the question, do you think it's best to
Speaker 1: hire someone with no experience and train them or hire
Speaker 1: someone with experience? Again, it's hard to say because it
Speaker 1: depends on the type of business. I can see that
Speaker 1: you're messaging me from a nail business, and maybe you're
Speaker 1: a nail salon, So for that, I mean it depends
Speaker 1: because I don't own your business. But for me, like
Speaker 1: I would want someone definitely who has experienced, especially if
Speaker 1: you're doing nails. But then again, I know, like when
Speaker 1: it comes to the service industry, you can teach these
Speaker 1: skills to people and then you can teach them exactly
Speaker 1: how you want it to be done. But I think
Speaker 1: if it's if it's like a casual position and you're
Speaker 1: quite a small business, I think if you've got the
Speaker 1: time to be able to train someone maybe they've only
Speaker 1: got a tiny bit of experience, get them in and
Speaker 1: teach them yourself. Because what can happen as well as
Speaker 1: if you hire someone that is like overqualified for the role.
Speaker 1: They can come in and kind of say, well, this
Speaker 1: is how I do it, and this is the way
Speaker 1: we did it at my last work or whatever, and
Speaker 1: that may cause a little bit of a problem as well.
Speaker 1: But as for me, with Fate and like our business
Speaker 1: and the way that we are, we always are hiring
Speaker 1: people with experience. In the first few years of Fate,
Speaker 1: I hired people that had no experience at all, and
Speaker 1: that worked for us at that time because we were smaller,
Speaker 1: we were less busy, you know, I could apply myself
Speaker 1: to training people a lot more, Whereas now, because we're
Speaker 1: such an established company, we don't have time to be
Speaker 1: training someone from the ground up. We want to get
Speaker 1: someone who is going to come in and they've got experience,
Speaker 1: let's say in retailer, whatever it is, and then we
Speaker 1: train them the way that we do things. But we're
Speaker 1: not training them from you know, the ground up. So
Speaker 1: that just really depends on you and your business. But
Speaker 1: I hope this helps. I'm gonna end this episode with
Speaker 1: a fun question. Someone has asked, what is your office
Speaker 1: pet peeve? Okay, I've got two straight away that I
Speaker 1: think of. The first one, I mean, this isn't just
Speaker 1: limited to an office, but when someone leaves the last
Speaker 1: like one sheet of toilet paper, like just sitting on
Speaker 1: top of the roll because they couldn't be bothered to
Speaker 1: fricking change the role over, that does my head in.
Speaker 1: I never say anything like I just change it over myself,
Speaker 1: but it makes me want to go out into the
Speaker 1: opics and be like, oh the fuck, what did the
Speaker 1: toilet last? Why didn't you just change it? Oh? So
Speaker 1: that's that's one of my pet pet peeves. But I
Speaker 1: think it's funny and I'm always like, who did that,
Speaker 1: lazy shits. And my other office pet peeve, I would say,
Speaker 1: is like noises in general. This is probably just a
Speaker 1: personal to me thing, but just like tapping of feet,
Speaker 1: like tapping of pens, someone chewing chewy, like all different
Speaker 1: noises really like bug me. And when I'm hearing noises,
Speaker 1: I can't unhear them. It's like, you know, as soon
Speaker 1: as you notice someone's tapping their foot or someone's chewing
Speaker 1: chewy with their mouth open, that's all I can bloody hear.
Speaker 1: And we work in an open office, like I just
Speaker 1: sit with everyone, so there's always little noises happening. But
Speaker 1: we do have music playing out loud in the office
Speaker 1: every day, and I do have my headphones on my
Speaker 1: desk as well, so if I'm ever feeling like overstimulated
Speaker 1: by a little tapping noises, I'll just chuck my headphones
Speaker 1: on and be like, if anyone needs me, just yell
Speaker 1: out to me or throw something at me to get
Speaker 1: my attention. But I would those are my office pet peeves.
Speaker 1: There's other ones too, like fucking you know, leave and
Speaker 1: dishes in the sink and whatever, but like that's just life.
Speaker 1: Isn't it. But anyway, thank you so much for your questions.
Speaker 1: There is so many more, and thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: another one of my bonus Chrissy period episodes.