Hi everyone, my name is Lee Wyatt. I am new here. I am 20 years old. My grandfather is 65 years old and owns Dons Hardwood Floor Service here in Memphis TN. We do work all over Memphis, Northern Mississippi, and Eastern Arkansas. He has been doing floors for around 45 years and opened Dons Hardwood Floor Service in 1983. He is getting ready to retire, and although I do not have but about one year experience with this work, we are getting everything in place for April, as that is when I will be taking over.

I owned a lawn and landscaping company with a buddy until I started working for my grandfather sometime early 2011. In the past year, I have taken in so much information, not only pertaining to floors, but also having to do with the business and money management side. Most of our work is contracted insurance and repair jobs, as he does not nor never has advertised. My grandfather is very old fashion, and has almost nothing to do with the modern technology (internet, computers, cell phones, GPS, television, etc) or latest techniques.
I am currently in school for my Associates in Business and have one more year then will be attending Memphis University. I will be the first in my family to get a college degree, let alone attend college.

I have already setup a website, designed uniform shirts, designed new modern day business cards, met with a few prosperous contractors, designed work van wraps, and am currently working on my redesigned business plan.

I cannot wait to take over this company my grandfather has built from scratch. I understand when it comes down to it, it will be somewhat difficult for him to let sometime takeover and manage his "baby", and for him to backdown a little. A lot of our employee are in their early 20s. We have a few employees who are family members. As of right now, the biggest problem my grandfather and I have is an employee named Ralph. Ralph in his 50s and is my grandfathers sisters husband. He has been with DHFS since day one. Somehow over the past couple decades, his pay has increased to a ridiculous number. I hate to say how much but I will tell you its in the upper 20s per hour! He is way overpaid in my opinion. The problem we have is he has gotten to the point where he just doesn't care anymore. And ever since he found out I will be taking over in April, he has had an attitude toward me. He rides the clock as long as he can, and he has been cutting more and more corners in the jobs that he is given to do. I can understand where he might feel hurt or something like that because he has been here way longer and knows a lot more than I do. But my grandfather believes that giving it do him would be a mistake, not only because he is not that responsible and cannot manage very well, but also because if he did, someone else would have to take it over again in another short 10 years due to Ralph retiring. On a side note, when I do takeover, I have made it clear to my grandfather that either 1) Ralph's pay would have to come down or 2) I would have to fire him due to the attitude / disrespect that has started coming from him lately, ever since I started.

Sorry for the long first post. So I guess I just wanted to say hey! And also if anyone could shed some light onto what I could do or say about the situation with Ralph. He does know a lot and has been here through it all, but in the end, I have no problem cutting him loose if need be in the best interest of the company.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure 'ol Ralph is miffed that some kid is in a position to tell him what to do, but making the customers suffer by shoddy work doesn't seem to be the best course of action for him.

As far as the pay, I think upper 20's, low 30's per hour for an experienced skilled tradesperson doesn't sound at all unreasonable to me (if they're doing a proper job), but then I live in the suburbs of an area where a starter home on the west side of town is over a million dollars.

Greetings Wyatt. Looks like you have a full plate on your hands there. I agree with Webster. If the guy has no capability to manage then he will drive the company into the ground. Good luck out there.

Yeah, I can understand where he's coming from, but he's not wanting to work with me at all. 20-30s? Really? The average we are paying per employee is somewhere around 15-17 an hour. For good dependable floor men that have 10-15 years experience.



I think he has the capability, I mean he's been my grandfathers head guy since day one. But I believe he's just so mad, he's just not wanting to turn out quality work like he should and could be. But I do know, if he decides to not straighten up, or even quits himself, he will not be able to find another company that will give him what he's getting from us.

I googled Memphis area real estate, and I see one can buy basically a mansion for the price of the "fixer upper" we live in (suburbs of Vancouver B.C.) Just an empty lot will cost more than a million on the west side of Vancouver ( I said starter home before, but most would just tear it down), so it's unrealistic for me to compare.
On $17 per hour here you'd be hard pressed to rent a basement suite, forget about buying a house (maybe even a car for that matter). $17 per hour in Tennessee is quite good then.
BTW, I'm not a skilled tradesperson, but an unskilled (but improving) hobbyist.

That's an awkward situation you're in; I'm not sure what I'd do.