E525: Employees vs. No Employees - Pros and Cons

4 months after Mike scaled down his team, Dave checks in with him and how it feels like to get back in the weeds of his ecommerce business.   Growing a team is second nature when revenue grows.    It's a natural by-product of success, to help the business grow even more in the next year.    But what is it like to maintain a $5M ecommerce business when you only have 1-2 employees? Dave is on the podcast today to check in on Mike 4 months after scaling down from a 20+ person team, to 1-2 employees for his ecommerce businesses.    They'll be discussing the differences of employees vs. no employees, contractors, and how being nice can do more bad than good.    If you've been thinking about scaling up your team, this episode is definitely for you.    Here are some timestamps to skip to your favorite parts:  0:00 - Introduction 1:13 - Current Team Status 2:41 - Does everyone hit a stage where they don't want to manage? 3:32 - Employee Loyalty 7:27 - Generational Differences with Employment 11:28 - Pros and Cons of Contractors 13:11 - The Problem with Being Too Nice 13:54 - Feeling Bad About Assigning Mundane Tasks 22:28 - Pros of Being A Solopreneur 32:55 - Cons of Being A Solopreneur 35:49 - Losing Out On Growing As A Leader 38:51 - ROI on Employees 41:50 - Going to the Vegas Sphere    As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at [email protected] if you're interested.    Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at [email protected]. We'd love to help you in any way we can.    Happy listening, and until next time, happy selling!