Keep employees or not?

[Jumpstart]

I'm closing on a laundromat with a heavy wash and fold business. The seller's granddaughter and another employee work there and I am told are willing to stay. Is it advisable to keep them other than to learn the business? or should I get whole new employees altogether? What does everyone think?

[bodman]

jumpstart keep them you should learn alot and they can help with the transition of you the new owner. its a good thing,

[vernonmaytag]

There are pluses and minuses to keeping existings.

Pluses:

They know the clients, and their likes and dislikes. And the clients know them.
They know how the business operates.
If you are new to the biz, then can be a wonderful source to bring YOU up to speed.

Minuses:

They have been used to the way things "were" under the previous owner, and are often resistant to change.
They can be resistant to the "authority" of you as the new owner, you have to "earn" your way to being the new boss.


We had two employees we inherited at ours. One is great hard working, easy going, open to change and new ideas, willing to offer up good suggestions when we are looking to fine tune the way things are done.

On the other hand, the other one, she was harder working, knew her stuff big time. She's the one that really brought us up to speed and taught us the ropes. BUT she had a terrible time with accepting change. Her attitude got worse and worse, and we finally had to fire her.



I'd talk to the former owners to guage their take on each and keep the best.

[Howard]

There is another issue to consider and that is unemployment payments. If you don't keep them its not your problem, but if you do keep them for a while and then get rid of them you will likely be on the hook for unemployment payments.