What amuses me most is not business greed.
I'm used to that by now.
What amuses me is something else: when a company loses millions on restrictions, turnover, chaos, and unnecessary fuss, but still discusses a 500-ruble bonus from the cash register as if it were a serious management tool...
The absurdity of typical staff motivation systems and sales plans. Compare two options...
1️⃣ Classic approach (implemented by almost everyone).
Hotel administrator motivation: 5% of sales of additional services (souvenirs, parking).
Let's calculate the profit.
Out of 10,000 income in the cash register, the admin gets 500 rubles.
Then we subtract costs from profit: taxes, cost of goods, logistics, acquiring fees, etc...
9,500 rubles - 22% - 30% - 2% = 4,370 rubles of profit.
I would also deduct the time costs (man-hours) to generate this income, because if there are no sales, the manager still gets a base salary. Let's assume it's the market average of 250 rubles/hour.
Selling 10 souvenir items, considering distraction and low automation, takes about 2 hours. That's 500 rubles of losses hidden in the "income item" - a paradox, but this is exactly what entrepreneurs CANNOT CALCULATE.
4,370 - 500 = 3,870 net profit at best. And this does not include the costs of auditing and inventory of all this nonsense, during which there is a huge waste of paper and employee time, and in essence, it's downtime disguised as important activity.
As a result, a lot of work and fuss, just so the admin can get a bonus of around 4,000 rubles per month through blood, sweat, tears, and nerves.
Do you think people at all levels will be highly motivated for such a result, especially after a couple of measly bonuses? Of course not! So the company's profit will drop further, but expenses will rise in attempts to increase it without changing conditions, yes... the same old carrot and stick.
2️⃣ Searching for gold and oil in the depths of processes with the help of employees through play, relying on people's passion and creative potential.
Based on practice and the theory of constraints, we know (it's a law of nature) that in business there are ALWAYS 3-5 fundamental constraints on profit growth.
Our task is to find these constraints and remove them using the efforts of employees at all levels. There are no regulations or KPIs here. The only bet is on your team's engagement and their ability to creatively solve problems without coercion...
* A side effect here will be staff turnover. Strong and creative individuals will prove themselves - they are your team, your gold. The weak will leave and take with them your future losses (theft, sabotage, laziness, lost profit).
By finding and eliminating a constraint, your business will automatically grow 2-3 times. But not necessarily in money - it could be savings, acceleration, efficiency gains, etc. And then another 2 times... and again... and again... each time one constraint is removed in each area of a wide range of business processes: accounting, sales, logistics, training, hiring, document management, marketing, etc.
And your task, as an owner, is to find a way to convey the value of this idea to staff who have long been intimidated by fines, neglect, and punishment for taking initiative... rather than forcing them to work better through shouting, orders, and sales plans.
Now about motivation.
It's one thing to try to surprise people with a share of sales (2-3-5%), i.e., naively assume that in 2026 people will break their backs for 3,500 rubles a month. Even with the best intentions, your sales economics cannot afford good bonuses...
It's another thing to achieve explosive growth, optimization, and cost reduction that will work for you for several years... That is, roughly tens of millions of money, from which you can CONFIDENTLY, or better yet GENEROUSLY, break off 100-200-300 thousand as bonuses. Not to mention that these 200,000 bonuses can be turned into 300,000 by using ingenuity and a little understanding of non-financial types of motivation.
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