We have a guy that has been our dough maker for three years. He has a key and comes in on his own at about 4-5AM. We pay him piece rate and he knocks out the dough 5 days a week.
Yesterday he called and said that he hurt his knee skiing and will not be able to work for 4 weeks. Dam.n! Next Wednesday we will begin the biggest 7 day period of the year (every year the 7 days from Dec 26 through Jan 1 are the biggest) where we will do 40-44K in a week. We need a dough maker so we are scrambling for it. Everybody is already doing overtime during this period so adding the work hours will be a tough thing to do if that is what we have to do.
Anyone want a free ski pass for two weeks? Come to our Colorado resort town, make dough every morning from 4 or 5 AM and ski all day free?
Soo… get up early make lots of dough, and make even more dough! That is what I do when a key employee is off! Take there wages and add in the payroll taxes and put them back in your pocket plus the un-priceable fun factor and you just got a big bonus!
Big bonus? Hardly. Right now, I would rather have the doughmaker. This is by a good margin the best business period of the year. I spend all day running around taking care of odd things as it is to do the 5-8K per day that we will be doing for the next two weeks. Last year from Dec 26th to Jan 14th we did $99,670 in sales. Saving the dough makers wage is the last thing on my mind.