Motivate Your Employees with These 4 Ideas

Business owners know how difficult it can be to motivate employees. No matter how great a potential employee may seem in a job interview, many end up "working for a paycheck" instead of truly caring about the company and the products or services it produces.

However, if you're a business owner, you don't have to resign yourself to employees that simply punch a time clock and sleepwalk through the day. Instead, try motivating your staff with a few of these ideas:

Offer performance rewards: If, for example, you run a music store, offer a cash bonus for every 100 CDs an employee sells. So if the employee receives an additional $25 per 100 CDs sold, they'll earn an extra $50 if they sell 200 CDs and $75 if they sell 300 CDs. You could also base performance rewards on the number of new customers that sign up for your newsletter or mailing list, or the total amount of sales the employee rings up for the week. Use your imagination to figure out which performance reward best suits your business and employees.

Offer profit-sharing: Profit-sharing allows employees to feel as if they have a vested interest in generating as much profit as possible. Not only does this encourage them to sell more product, it also encourages them to recruit new customers and limit loss. Many different companies offer profit-sharing, so model yours after a tried-and-true method. Let your employees know that profit-sharing is part of the package when they start working for you, and they'll be motivated to succeed at the very beginning!

Offer commission: If your business involves the sale of a product or service, you may want to offer your employees a commission based salary. Although not everyone prefers this type of pay method, it does serve as an incentive for your salespeople to generate increased sales. Alternatively, you could offer commission only on certain products, or only for certain departments in your business. Choose the best method for your company and your employees.

Offer a friendly competition: If you don't have the high budget or flexible finances required for the other employee motivators, you may still be able to motivate your employees inexpensively if you make it a competition. Have your employees compete to see who can sell the greatest number of widgets per week, for example. Or have them compete to see who can get the most customers to sign the mailing list. Your prize to the winner can be anything from a gift certificate to the local movie theater to a cash bonus.

To truly motivate your employees, you need to cultivate employee loyalty by being an honest and fair employer. But a little extra incentive in the form of a prize or cash can help generate sales and give your employees a reason to increase profits.