Judy Musicant on tue 3 may 05
Jennifer Boyer wrote:
"If I was going to start a new gallery I wouldn't use the "% of sales"
model of compensation for work done. For one thing, the level of
valuable skills in board members has nothing to do with their success
as sellers. So our top seller on the board is only able to do
maintenance type work, which doesn't take that much time. Another
board member is a low seller but is willing to be the Human Resources
person who writes the employee handbook, hires/ fires clerks and does
employee reviews. So these two are compensated totally opposite to
their efforts.
It would be a rare situation where the top sellers are all willing to
put in the level of work that matches the profit they are making. The
way I think of it is that if you have a regular consignor taking =
60%=3D20
their sales and a worker taking 70% of their sales, that 10%
difference must represent work. So if someone sells 1000 a year, they
owe $1000*.10 or $100 worth of work to the gallery.
The problem arises when one person makes 500 in sales and one makes
5000. One owes $50 and one owes $500. If you don't think of it in
those therms then the top sellers are rewarded most, no matter =
what=3D20
kind of time of commitment they put into the running of the gallery.
If I was going to do it over again I'd switch to a monthly flat fee
plus hourly pay for the time put in by each board member. That's the
most fair way to do it.
The consignment % model is a real morale drain for board members who
work alot and don't sell as well as their less committed peers....."
Hourly pay for time worked by members is an interesting concept. Anyone =
out there doing it like that? =20
A group of us were talking about starting a co-op closer to where we =
live (the one I belong to now is an hour's drive). One person was very =
strong about a flat fee as opposed to using different commission rates =
based on time worked - everyone else felt that would be a morale drain =
for those who sold poorly. If the flat fee was $100 per month, someone =
who sold less than that on a regular basis would be out of the co-op =
pretty quick, it seems to me. On the other hand, if they sell $70 per =
month, and their commission rate is 10%, they get to take home some =
money. The more you sell, the more you get to take home - that's the =
way it works under any circumstance. Most of us thought that made =
sense. We do have a schedule of monthly fees in addition to the =
commission on sales, depending on how much space you have in the =
gallery.
Adding a pay for work component is an interesting thought - although it =
creates a lot more bookkeeping complexity for a small and casual group. =
Also, some legal issues, I would think.
Judy
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