creating a company thats similar to employee owned?

i want to create a retail online store some time and do drop-shipping and eventually buy wholesale and have a warehouse. is there a way to make it egalitarian more where people get their fair share of income? all net profits will be invested into profitable community projects and the income is kept tracked of and when all the investments come back in it is all fairly divided into profit sharing for all the employees. i do not want to go cooperative because i want to remain in control because it will need to invest in another timberland forestry business as well. money grows on trees. i don't want to feel bad about paying workers crappy wages like 10 dollars an hour. if you know if esop companies can have a majority share owner and profit sharing and be able to invest into other companies? the workers will earn at least 15 minimum. ill start as self employed. last do you think its fair for a business owner to pay crap to workers while making millions?

Wesley johnsen wrote:last do you think its fair for a business owner to pay crap to workers while making millions?

do you think it's fair that you have to scrimp and save the money to start your business for 10 years while your future employees can live high on the hog?

said another way.... take the hard road now so you can live well later.

FWIW pay your employees a reasonable wage but you shouldn't feel guilty about making profits. It has taken me a number of years to realize that most people who want remodeling and home renovation work done are more than happy to pay me two or three times what I used to ask for the same work just a few short years ago. They have the money... take it! The one caveat in my personal situation is that people REALLY appreciate a bid and would be happy to pay you 3x what the job would actually cost otherwise if they knew the amount up front. Take advantage of it.

The easiest path is to just do it. You as an owner can easily describe a profit sharing scheme in words and act it out in actions. There is no legal anything to do. You just give people the money as bonuses.

Another strategy is to split controlling stock from equity stock. Most public companies do this now. So for example, you can define that Class B shares get 10 votes per share while Class A shares get 1 vote per share. That way you can maintain a small ownership in the company but still have a controlling interest. Currently people do this for nefarious reasons, but you could just as easily use this structure to distribute dividends. There are tax complications this route (when gifting shares or offering an options incentive package) — but at the same time, dividends are taxed far below anything else in America.

Honestly, I'd just go with route number one. Just do it. Nothing complicated.

I suggest rewards to be equal to the value of the employee. That is, everyone does not get an equal bonus. Employees have different levels of contributing to the profit line... or insolvency.

Sounds like you are talking about creating a cooperative as opposed to a traditional business. I would recommend finding a few other people to start the business with using the cooperative model. That would also let you all pool your resources.

Even in a cooperative pay is different at different levels. But one person can not dictate what the difference is. This could result in a more fair distribution of the profits that still takes into account the different skill level required for each position and the value added to the business by each position.

Though often in cooperatives individuals are still given the ability to make decisions based on their position without taking a vote. But if they do a bad job than there are options for the other members of the cooperative to make changes. So if an executive gives themselves and the other executive staff a big bonus the rest of the employees have recourse if the bonus is seen as unfair.

Just another way to run a business and can be done in a very fair and effective way. Can also be done poorly but the same can easily be said for traditional business.