Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,

We are almost ready to launch a project we have been working on for about a year and one of our main target markets is Brazil. We have found a person there who will run operations and do campaigns and to get our initial signups (its a community/dating site).

The problem we have is that we havent decided how to reward this person depending on his results in his market. He will start to translate the site to portuguese for free and then try to reach goals we will set up together. For example XXX signups he will get $XXX or similar. He is more interested in getting shares of the company rather than cash bonuses, but I have a hard time figuring out on how to do this:

1. We are 4 partners in the project, the owner % has already been divided among us 4 and Im not sure giving the brazilian manager % in the whole company is a good idea, since he will only affect one market.

2. An idea is to give him % of the net revenue from Brazil itself, however, we dont plan to get any income until at least 6-9 months down the road.

3. Giving him cash is fine but we have a small budget (only $15k) and that wont make him motivated in the long run, if it turns out that this guy is very skilled.


What do you guys suggest? Are there any standards when it comes to giving partners or employees incentives like this? Im totally lost and would appreciate any feedback you might have.

Thanks alot!

D

I answered this in your other post...

The only real standards are what you can get away with giving to get what you need. *smiles*

I would find out WHY he wants a % of the company. Is it for the money (like a commission) or because he actually wants ownership, and to be part of the sale?

An option that may work are:

$X/signup + % of Brazillian sales + 1% profit share of overall company + X% of sale price if the company is sold (but no actual ownership, so he is left out of primary decision-making).

You can work that equation a number of different ways to reach a goal that works and is satisfactory to all of you.

There are many ways to be clever. Just find out what your needs are and his needs, then find a way to meet them.

*smiles*

Good luck!