Well
@levi r since you started the thread and you asked for more info this doesn't qualify as a hijack lol. We started with three guys, and the idea that we wanted to share decision-making equally so we just granted each other equal power. We all had different levels of experience and different amounts of equipment(financial skin in the game) that we came into the venture with. I left a nursing career knowing I wanted to do tree work, work with people I liked and respected and have direct input into what work I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. We also started out paying ourselves $30/hour with the rest being invested back into the business. The plan was to split profit up at the end of the year, if there was any, based on hours worked. It didn't take long to realize that we were not all worth the same amount of money and we didn't all provide the same value to the business. We added a 4th owner and a total of 3 employees, two full time and one part time, and started the two full time guys at $25/hr and the part time guy at $30 because he's worth more and he's a 1099 because he has insurance through his wife. The guy who had the least experience was the most insecure about the idea of different wages when we brought it up. He eventually left us somewhat unexpectedly because of his citizenship status and the worries he has because of our dumbass president. He also tried to take a large chunk of money from us without approval and we had to dress him down and scare him into returning it. The entry cost to become an owner is something we have tried to codify and as it stands, you have to work with us for 1 year, meet a number of skills benchmarks, and then pay $100 to become an owner. Pretty easy really. We have operating agreements about how a person is paid out when they leave, but have only had to use it for the one guy so far. One of our employees left because he was offered a slightly higher wage and health insurance(this is a job he left prior to come work with us) and he was back in about 10 days. He was put in unsafe situations, had no opportunities to grow on the job, no input into how or what kind of work he had to do on a daily basis, no mentorship, and an unethical approach to tree work. He gladly took a small pay cut and opted to get his own insurance through the marketplace rather than work somewhere else. We have learned a lot in two years about what works and what the pitfalls of a co-op can be but we do really good work and get along with each other really well. If someone needs to take some time off, they can. No questions. We pay for two weeks off around Christmas and always share the wealth. It is an ongoing experiment but so far so good. We have two ISA Certified Arborists on staff and soon it will be all three of us owners and one employee(who will be an owner soon if he chooses)with certs. There's so much more to tell but ask any specific questions you have. Currently the three owners make $31, $33 and $36/hour.
