How do you measure your business’s success?

If you are going into business you want it to be successful. But where does the trade-off come between a successful business and being successful yourself?

I fully believe in compensating your employees to the fullest extent as well as sharing the business’s standing with them, but at what point may it actually hurt the business.

For my ventures I have always tried to be as open as I could about business standings/results. Not all employees are driven by the profitability of the company — but you would expect that. One solution has been to tie compensation to company results, but it becomes way to complicated on a short term basis (I do think year end bonuses can help). What I keep finding, time and again, is that regular payment is all that matters — especially on a business where all employees work from remote locations.

One solution: build a community no matter what it takes, even if it is virtual. By getting employees to interact with one another will bring out the team spirit. This can work even in businesses where employees never meet (we are in a world where people meet online and then get married so this isn’t a stretch). Ideas like conference calls, chat rooms, group email, contest and other can go a very long way.

But the question is, is the business successful when you achieve your goal or when the entire business hits it’s high point. I prefer the latter but that is just. Until next time, it’s time for me to motivate my employees.