The Guide
Jay Goltz

Do I Want to Be a Good Person or a Good Boss?

 

On my blog post about disability insurance, a reader named DD posed the following question:

We were about to cut this guy in for 5% of the business when he had a heart attack (age 50). He's been off 3 months now and we've continued to pay him, but it's got to end. I need to hire someone soon to pick up the slack. As the owner, I can't do his job and continue to do mine. How do I approach this?

Welcome to the dark side of entrepreneurship. Before I give you my opinion, I would like to know the following facts:

Who is "we"? Do you have partners? How long has he been with you? Have you ever made any promises of partnership? Was he supposed to pay something for his 5%? What is his prognosis? How critical has he been to your business success? Assuming you replace him, have you come up with an amount of severance -- IF, that is, you don't think you've already paid him enough. Has he made any comments to you about coming back to work? Has he expressed concern for how long you can go without him, or anything of the sort?

Thanks for the comment. I believe it would be best to wait for DD's answers before I respond.