Gosh @Sure! What do you do for a living? Are you in Nairobi - tremendous insight.

Does franchising work in Kenya or a form of offering the employees a share in the business work as a way to improve employee output.

I am wondering on how do small business owners manage their business before the business can afford their FTE?

I am one, partially though. I say partially because I pass by the business premises 4 - 5 times a week. But here are some of the control systems that have worked in my case:

1. Trustworthy manager - I got someone I have known for many years as the lead manager. I had to go through multiple iterations on the other employees before I could get a perfect fit (countless headaches). But the team I have currently is doing fine and has been there for a year now without any signs of going anywhere any time soon.

2. Regular interactions with employees through meetings, impromptu visits etc. They own the vision of the business and they know what their role is or ought to be for the overall success of the business.

2. Age of the employees. In the above mentioned iterations, I came to learn that age of the employees plays a big role. Older employees tend to be more mature in their approach to life and more stable. More so people with families to take care of.

3. Rewards and incentive schemes to employees. Generally in the area I operate, I pay higher salaries than most of the neighbouring businesses - something the neighbours are not very happy about. In addition, I have a separate bonus schemes pegged on performance.

(all above relates to employees, they can make or break a business)

3. Book keeping - top notch. It is my everyday routine early in the morning. They send the books at end of day (digitally) and early in the morning I convert (update) them to proper IFRS compliant books. I bet I have a better set of financial statements that a majority of the corporates around. I have passed some of the book keeping skills to employees over time, and I continue to do so. I maintain an hawk eye on the numbers and over time I have mastered the trends and patterns, by just looking at the numbers I can tell where things are going wrong. And they know am a numbers guy, they do not mess up with me when it comes to numbers.

4. Feedback channels. I source for information about the ongoings at the business from multiple sources. I take feedback very seriously and action it, both positive and negative. This includes: self periodical visits (4-5 times a week); CUSTOMERS; employees; neighbouring business; suppliers; and my boys who do clandestine CSI-like visits from time to time etc,

5. Real-time live feed on my phone. I have installed high quality HD CCTV system with a live real time feed to my phone. The system also has a play-back functionality that I can use via the phone remotely without necessarily going at the business premises. This way, I am able to see what is happening (or happened), as and when I need to. Lastly and most importantly, the employees know there is a third eye watching over them , a psychological weapon.

Are there any other successful remote managers on Wazua?
Wazuans have great ideas and there is no shortage of ideas on Wazua but I feel that there is a lot of mental masturbation going on and a lot less business activity (Excluding stock investment)
To the successful business people on Wazua how do you go about setting up your business?
@Timuka gave great advice above but I am fishing for, and wishing, for some more insight from the other successful Wazua business people.