This is the time of year I love and I hate. End of year reviews, bonuses, and raises. Many in the domain industry are a company of one. The annual review is in the mirror. They get to avoid the highs and lows of reviews and bonuses. I still give all the reviews of everyone despite having so many employees. Many people say I only do this for an ego thing but in reality its because most of my managers are operational. They don’t want to deal with the money side of the employees. The budgets they deal with is the production cost and sales. Of course they do the reviews and then I read them and add my thoughts into a what scale of raise and bonus they get.
After doing thousand of these I have come to realize that the reaction to the review are not based on actual amounts that people are given. The reaction is is based on expectations. There is also what I call a maximum result. The quandary is this for example. If I come up with an employee’s share of year end bonuses to be $1000 but if I gave them $500 they would be through the roof excited. Thanking us up and down and almost crying. Do you give the other $500? I think you do because you determined they deserved the $1000. Its not about pleasing them, its about how much deserve whether they know it or not. Did they earn above that? And did the company make enough money that some extra could/should be shared with all employees. Not just those with incentives. The biggest problem with have some great years in a row is that although the bonuses have been quite large, the expectations have now been set super high. If next year is not as good or with their raise they don’t deserve as big of a bonus, they could get upset.
I had one employee get upset this year and quit. Quit because they thought the bonus and what we did for him/her at the end of the year was disrespectful. They received their profit share but basically no bonus. They also didn’t take advantage of our IRA matching that is 3 and 5%. More free money. They didn’t receive anything more than cost of living raise of 3% because they did their job and no more. They worked their hours and did a good job but ask them to stay and there was always a reason why they couldn’t. But they were first to ask a favor if something came up for them. Again, did their job. Good at it. But were paid fairly for that. They got a raise because any employee should be better at their job after another year of experience. They also got their share of bonuses like everyone else. Their coworkers on the other had in some cases got 15% raises and 10% bonuses because they crushed it. Sales up 30%, took some programs under their belt, worked weekends so they would be freed up on Monday, and helped others when they weren’t busy. In short, were way and above what they were paid for. I saw it and I paid it back at the end of the year through bonuses and raised their salary to what it should have been. The way it should be.
The person that got none of that lectured me on what a terrible person I was, how I thought I was better than them, and I was disrespectful. Then they did the old “I don’t feel comfortable saying it’s just myself so I’ll say others think it too” . Its the oldest statement in the book. Use a private conversation of a coworker to make it seem like the whole place hates working there. In the old days I would have called in the other worker which is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Now I just let it go and let them have their word and try and feel comfortable that I am trying to do the right thing. I won’t lie it ruins a good day of bonuses and makes me question whether I am a good owner or not. But I think it out and usually come to the same place each time. I’m fair and a much better owner than I was last year which was better than the year before. I also think to myself how much easier it would be for me to be on my own but then I see the people that accomplish things alone. It’s like hitting a hole in one alone. If you’re by yourself and hit it, the only thing you can do is tell about it in a story. “Look at me, I hit a hole in one” People that accomplish things with a group or team have the team to relay the story. They also will let you know if its even worth telling the story. And to me sharing the experience can be just an enjoyable as the results or the reward.
PS: Good luck today on Friday the 13th
Quote of the Day: “If you don’t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out” ~ George Goodman
Domain of the Day: CustomAuto.com Thousands of companies would love to own this name. Although at this price its going to have to be $50K plus at retail
Namejet, Sedo, Snap, and other Names Up for Auction
SelfHeal.org The world is all about mental health and self right now. 13 years old. No bids at $1
KansasRealty.com There are thousands of Realtors in Kansas but only one can have the domain. 23 years old. Ends today and reserve met.
LandscapeCompany.com Met reserve and ends today. Great name and yes its in my wheelhouse. I’d buy it but I’ve had a little issue logging into Flippa
Sneegle.com 14 years old. No bids at $79
Glorn.com Nice sounding 5L.com for $79. No bids
Squiggle.io If the reserve is at the low end it may sell
OQH.com Lower end of reserve will get it done but not sure its worth of the high end
SoccerDrills.com Under $100. Build it and sell it on Flippa
RainbowFlags.com Same thing here. I think you can make a profitable Rainbow flag and sticker site
BetMarket.com IMO one of the better gambling name I’ve seen at Namejet . edit: Nevermind seems to have disappeared
HostRiver.com Upgrade name for a few companies
SugarCharm.com snap has a $19 section and occasionally you can find some names that may be worth a flyers. And yes, when you buy a $19 you are always buying a flyer. There are no awesome names at $19
Godaddy Domains With Bids
Click the links to fund the site and our work
Zurdy.com Not a bad 5L.com for $20
ZT.org Been a good month for adding LL.orgs
DigitalRefresh.com I’ve been to a couple sites that could use this
44422.com The Chinese market is going to eat this name up
ElevenThemes.com want to start a wordpress theme sales site. Get a huge head start by buying this old themes site
HighScore.net It’s a dot net but would make a good record keeping site
EmbassyOfAfghanistan.org the big price is for the PR10s and other link juice
ServingAmerica.com Marketing name for American Pride
PredictiveInsights.com Sounds like a company that a stock trader would hire to get a competitive advantage
Reputera.com Because all you have is your reputation
CryptoCharge.com Crypto credit card ?
PrintSmarter.com Don’t print faster, print smarter
HushLittleBaby.com Don’t you cry, Daddy’s going to buy you …………..
FatherX.com Keyword + X names seem to get good bids.
Dermedica.com Upgrade name for a few dozen companies. Sounds German
FanCaps.com A billion dollar industry . At least a few hundred million
ComSquad.com Someone in our industry could use this one
Godaddy Names With One of No Bids
The Rest of the Godaddy Names With Bids
365DaysOfBliss.com
65378.com
68963.com
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90889.com
Alukov.com
BJshp.com
bsatroop62.org
BunnyHawk.com
c158.com
ChristianGrants.com
ClarityPointe.com
CricMania.com
Dunti.com
eCigsAndCoupons.com
ee789.com
FilmAdvisoryBoard.org
FleetGuardian.com
FullFill.org
FutureSlaw.com
GDLCoatings.com
HempSTX.com
HiAppleton.com
HilltopAcres.com
HollywoodWeightLoss.com
HomeFundraising.com
hs567.com
HybridCasino.com
IBAMountainHomes.com
InnocenceProjectOfTexas.org
Kamsi.info
LarsonMarksRacing.com
LeapManagement.com
LemonLadies.com
leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com
Maravalinc.com
MediationPlus.com
MLKCelebrationDallas.org
MortgageCareer.com
MovieDragon.com
MyTextGraphics.com
NashvilleMortgage.com
OnyxSparrow.com
OregonGoodSam.com
PACMedia.com
PersonalMarketplace.com
PokerToGelMania.com
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ProfitShop.com
PublicCentralBank.com
RaisingSmallSouls.com
Robolytics.com
SargassoAlliance.org
SearchEnginePlan.com
SoloGame.com
Storytelling-NYC.org
SuzukiSwift.info
Tartarughe.info
TecnoArteNews.com
TennisTracker.com
Terrific-Horses.com
TheBZZ.com
TheHeartOfDallasBowl.com
ThePlayersPub.com
TheRealDeals.com
ThisIsHarz.com
upa-dc-metro.org
VeggieMight.com
VintageFret.com
VirginiasPortaransas.com
WestBengalSSC.org
Xaxf.com
YogaButt.com
Have a name at auction and need more exposure? Send me an email. We Charge $10 per name per day. We may be able to help. If you have an auction you want to promote, email us for details.*All names chosen by us, Shane and Josh . (ie you click through and purchase a name you like) or an occasional paid listing. Everything we say is based on our own research or is opinion. Do your own due diligence. That means look it up yourself if you don’t think the stats or our opinion is correct. We hand choose the names but we are paid to make this list by both the auction houses, individuals that are auctioning names, and Godaddy affiliate links. Keep that in mind and only buy names that YOU think are good.
A 3% annual increase is good. Many big companies offer much smaller annual raises than that, if any.
Regarding domain investors, the annual review is every day. The results come in and there’s no one to blame but yourself, and when the news is good then you can take satisfaction in having done it yourself.
But even “company of one” domain investors can’t do it without the help of people at the domain service providers they work with, other domain investors and bloggers who offer research and advice, etc. They are just not on your payroll per se. But without them, it’s difficult to run a domain business.
Very good points. It’s never just one. I have given a 3% or better raise for 20 years straight. Even in 2007-2012. At the end of year you should be at least 3% better at your job than you were at the beginning. And many get 10% or more. If they are remarkably better and deserve the better wage it’s given. Although even after I still am told I take advantage of people because I make a good profit at the end . But it’s the rich people are bad thinking not looking at comparison to other employers
You can never please everyone.
Your policies sound reasonable, and you provide a living for many people, as well as a valuable service for your neighborhood.
That’s good enough!!!
Well said Shane and agreed. I think the reality is that no matter what, some people are just unhappy and need someone to take their anger/disappointment out on, and a boss is often one of their primary targets.
You run a great business, treat people well, and offer a very fair bonus/salary increase program.
Congrats on another great year and like Bob Marley says, “you can please some people sometimes, but you can’t please all of the people all the time” – I find that rings true quite a bit, both in business and life!
Interesting to see Reputera.com on auction. I owned it previously and it sold on Brandbucket in 2017 for only $1,990. I missed the auction today but I’m curious to see what it sold for.
$158 – it will probably be back on BB soon.