Preface – while in Antigua on our service project a local Rotarian recommended some restaurants to us (her firm grows hydroponic greens, so she knows the good ones) and we fell in love with one of them, Mama Mia. A true Italian gem with an owner from Rome*. We ate dinner there three times and went once for breakfast. We would not have found this place on our own (relationships matter).
Main story – in chatting with the owner we found out:
- She’s owned the restaurant and 42 room boutique hotel for many years.
- She went back to Rome and hired a manager.
- The business slid downhill, and not slowly.
- Her son and her returned to run it themselves.
Five years ago, I did a short video podcast titled, “Small Businesses Need the Adult Supervision Only an Owner can Provide” (https://youtu.be/K2Y8rJMvi1g) (and Mama Mia’s is a perfect example of this).
I think of this video and now will think of our friends at Mama Mia every time someone says:
A manager at $X salary (with X = a well under market amount) can run this business. Yes, run it into the ground.
There’s a reason the fair market salary or a CEO of a business with $2 million of earnings is a few hundred thousand dollars not the same as the manager at Taco Bell gets.
You get what you pay for, either way.
* And my wife has a new best friend in Antigua by way of Rome.
“A’s hire A’s and B’s hire C’s. Find some A’s and try to be around them.” Donald Rumsfeld
“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.” Ernie Banks
