About 15 years ago I met an absentee owner who was responsible for a family ranch that was losing money. It had lost between $200,000-$300,000 year after year for a…
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Most family ranches are subsidized with free, or underpaid, family labor. Sometimes the difference between what family members get and what it would cost to hire someone else to do…
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… but it is even harder to find a good boss. I often hear employers complain that it is hard to find good help. I rarely hear them ask how…
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Good people? What’s that supposed to mean? Compared to what? Bad people? With the exception of the Hillside Strangler and Jack the Ripper, I’m hesitant to label very many people…
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If you have a family ranch, whether you know it or not, you have a family employment policy. At least your kids think you do. In the absence of a…
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Most “ranch managers” aren’t managers. They don’t do the work of a manager, they don’t produce the results a manager would produce and they aren’t paid what a manager would…
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When I was a kid if I asked my parents for money they would usually come up with some extra chores for me to do or suggest that I see…
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Most of us hire people to work. We write job descriptions telling them to do this or that. But what people do and how long or hard they work is…
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Abby of Dear Abby, passed away last week. I don’t intend to take her place dispensing relationship advice, but I do get my share of Dear Dave letters. Here’s a…
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