My stubborn boss

[reinventmyself]

I totally see your point.  But like or not, it is her business and you are merely an employee.  She has proven to be inflexible about any change to this culture and as a paid employee certain you need to work within those parameters.  Kudos to you for patiently trying to get to her to consider different things.  But it just isn't working.

It must be frustrating to be given the responsibility of increasing revenue just to continually hit road blocks.  Accept what you cannot change and either support her vision, even if it doesn't match yours. Or decide this is just mismatch and seek a side gig elsewhere.

[Kwothe28]

All in the line of work. You should see me with my freelance clients. Every once in a while there is some that would want changes every day. One took the better part of my whole week just on changes. Mind you that I cant charge extra hours and they demanded changes every day. I did the pitch, then they demanded changes on text, then after that different pictures, then to use their pictures etc. After a week of my head hurting, I had the luxury to just pass them to somebody else and not do that anymore.

It happens in freelance work a lot. My friend had clients who wanted changes of the pictures "because people smile wrong". My other friend had a guy that called her once in a few hours to make some changes. Some clients are normal and you can work with them very nicely. But some are excrutiatingly painful for your mental health. And looks like you stumbled upon one of those. And again, its much better to just stop working for somebody like that. You did a very good job. And I would use that as a springboard for some future work. Lots of people needs exactly what you did here, to make some changes and modernize the business. Use that in some future projects. This one you can just leave if you cant handle the difficult clients demands.

[Wiseman2]

1 hour ago, Alex39 said:

I'm being paid minimum wage. . I was hired as a business manager. 

There's probably plenty of more interesting jobs especially if you're only earning minimum wage.

Why are you working for minimum wage if you are supposedly a business manager? Even though you've improved some of her profits, it's her business and she seems set in her ways.

Please reflect why someone with a business degree would accept a minimum wage job. Especially since you seem to want to redecorate more than anything else. 

[Jaunty]

I think you have this minimum wage side-gig  because it's flexible, you can fit it in with your regular work life and get some extra dough.

If you've increased her receivables from $2000 to $6000 per month, you've done a good job.   I'm sure she's pleased and you can be proud.

The way you speak about the business owner and her vision for her business, though,  is alarmingly disrespectful and tone deaf.

There is nothing wrong with her business model of catering to OLD PEOPLE or wanting to have pictures of herself, an OLD PERSON on her own website.

There is also nothing wrong with pre-registering for classes.  It's a lot smarter than having an instructor there, the place open, and not enough clients to pay for that.  As well as allowing the owner to do something else with that time.  

Fitness is a niche industry.  It's actually smart to focus on a clientele.  OLD PEOPLE might not feel like going to a gym with 20-something "hip" people doing more intensive workouts to hip-hop music.  There are gyms that are only for women since a lot of women prefer not to be hit on; there are gyms that only offer Pilates, gyms devoted to Cross-fit or weight training.   That is SMART marketing.  A business model needs to identify who the business aims to serve.

The boomers and millennials are very large populations.  She can increase her base by continuing to focus on the clientele she has chosen to serve.  Evidently your ideas have helped her do that.

The owner is not planning to turn the running of her business completely over to you, someone who works part time for minimum hourly wage, no matter how great of a job you are doing.  

Why not just keep going with helping her succeed in offering a business service that is what SHE envisioned for HERSELF when she started and funded this business.   

If you think she is unfairly benefitting from your ideas, either ask her for a raise or for some kind of commission structure where you get a kickback for new clients who have responded to one of your promos.

And if you are still going to be resentful that she might "steal" your ideas (which is what you agreed to by accepting this job, so what are you thinking?) then resign.

 

 

[boltnrun]

15 minutes ago, Jaunty said:

The boomers and millennials are very large populations.

This is absolutely true. We are living longer and staying active more now than any other era. 

[Seraphim]

25 minutes ago, Jaunty said:

I think you have this minimum wage side-gig  because it's flexible, you can fit it in with your regular work life and get some extra dough.

If you've increased her receivables from $2000 to $6000 per month, you've done a good job.   I'm sure she's pleased and you can be proud.

The way you speak about the business owner and her vision for her business, though,  is alarmingly disrespectful and tone deaf.

There is nothing wrong with her business model of catering to OLD PEOPLE or wanting to have pictures of herself, an OLD PERSON on her own website.

There is also nothing wrong with pre-registering for classes.  It's a lot smarter than having an instructor there, the place open, and not enough clients to pay for that.  As well as allowing the owner to do something else with that time.  

Fitness is a niche industry.  It's actually smart to focus on a clientele.  OLD PEOPLE might not feel like going to a gym with 20-something "hip" people doing more intensive workouts to hip-hop music.  There are gyms that are only for women since a lot of women prefer not to be hit on; there are gyms that only offer Pilates, gyms devoted to Cross-fit or weight training.   That is SMART marketing.  A business model needs to identify who the business aims to serve.

The boomers and millennials are very large populations.  She can increase her base by continuing to focus on the clientele she has chosen to serve.  Evidently your ideas have helped her do that.

The owner is not planning to turn the running of her business completely over to you, someone who works part time for minimum hourly wage, no matter how great of a job you are doing.  

Why not just keep going with helping her succeed in offering a business service that is what SHE envisioned for HERSELF when she started and funded this business.   

If you think she is unfairly benefitting from your ideas, either ask her for a raise or for some kind of commission structure where you get a kickback for new clients who have responded to one of your promos.

And if you are still going to be resentful that she might "steal" your ideas (which is what you agreed to by accepting this job, so what are you thinking?) then resign.

 

 

I agree, the baby-boomers is a massive population with still the most money to spend. The last of them are 64 ish to my mom’s age of 78. The younger ones are still VERY active in life and like I say have a lot of spending potential. My generation is smaller . I am the oldest year of X. We are a little more cash strapped  than our parents but we still have enormous buying power especially when combined with the generation above us. The one’s below us unfortunately are cash strapped and floundering in university debt and taxes and further crippled by a bad economy and inflation and interest rates etc etc etc. 
 

Our two generations still command a lot of money and earning potential as we have reached the very tops but of where we wanted and are gliding into retirement . We aren’t old, feeble, slow, or poor.

[catfeeder]

2 hours ago, Alex39 said:

If her business goes under, then I lose my job.

Hello Alex, it's great to hear from you again. I'd reconsider this statement above ^^^ carefully, because it implies that your one-and-only only option for a part time side gig is THIS job. That can do something to your head and create a false urgency.

This owner is only paying you minimum wage, even while part time jobs that pay even more are a dime a dozen. Such companies neeeeeed people like you with a good work ethic who are reliable and smart.

So? This doesn't mean that you 'should' dump this woman, but rather, right-size your expectations of a minimum wage job. She can call you the freakin' President and claim you've got full reign of all business decisions--but the bottom line is, it's a minimum wage gig and she won't ever give you the power to operate as you see fit, no matter what she 'says'.

Decide if you can live with that. Maybe instead of swimming upstream to the degree that it robs you of enjoyment of the job, you could embrace a fun 'play' time at another local shop or gym or service or whatever, and without a single care about how they operate beyond treating YOU fairly.

Head high, and decide how much of your focus this really deserves.

[Starlight925]

This is not workable long term.  
 

Find another side gig. 
 

I could write paragraphs, but basically, you two do not see eye to eye, and in the end, it’s her business.  
 

Sorry this isn’t working out. 

[reinventmyself]

Here's one way to look at it.  Work within your paygrade.  If you are being paid minimum wage with no promise of advancement, you just do your work.

I retired and took a side gig at minimum wage.  At some point my boss tells me she didn't want to deal with the 'day to day' stuff and in a dismissive manner wanted me to just handle it.  But the daily operations was her job and what she wanted to side step was making unpopular decisions and dealing with difficult personalities. 

Nope!  I continued doing the bookkeeping and refused to get involved in the drama. (or anything above my paygrade)  You'd have to pay me much more than minimum wage to deal with the negative controversial stuff.  For that matter I retired from a job where I had to make unpopular decisions.  And I was compensated well for it.

If you decide to keep your job adjust your expectations some.  You'll may feel much better not feeling so responsible for things you have no control over.

[MissCanuck]

This job is not the right fit for you. 

It doesn't make sense to stay on and complain about it. 

[Wiseman2]

5 hours ago, Alex39 said:

She tells me how she just wants to do fitness and teach fitness and hired me to run the business side, but she isn't actually letting me run it ever. 

Unfortunately she didn't hire you as a CEO. She hired you more as an assistant.

[LootieTootie]

25 minutes ago, Wiseman2 said:

Unfortunately she didn't hire you as a CEO. She hired you more as an assistant.

I get that sense too. I also agree with others that you're getting paid way too little for someone who is trying to market/revamp a business. I think you need to go back and read your job ad and ask if these high-level tasks were part of the job ad or the agreed upon job duty statement. 

If it is then I think you need to find another part-time job. This isn't exactly a minimum-hourly paid job, especially part-time. The things you are doing for her, you can do with some other small-owned business for much more, you can try to negotiate a reasonable pay for what you'll be doing. 

If you don't want to find another job but want to help her business grow, you have to just suck it up. Also, I think you put way too much emphasis on her being old and her target audience. Her target audience is fine because seniors prefer working out with seniors.

I think maybe you have ideas in how to bring more people in, but your ideas would not really work with older people. Older people or older generations still find face to face meetings impactful so you might have to sell the old fashion way - knocking on people's doors. If you live in a city, try going to senior living facilities. There are also senior daycare centers where people come in and play cards, chess, drink coffee and chit chat, do tai-chi. There are also knitting or crafting meet up groups - which in my area, mostly are older ladies (50-70 years old).

 

 

[rainbowsandroses]

7 hours ago, Alex39 said:

I recently took on a side gig to add more income in my pocket. It's part-time, really flexible,

Since this is a side gig to supplement the income from your main job, this is such a no brainer - QUIT!

Lord have mercy, you haven't posted one positive thing about either your boss, her appreciation of the work you do there or the place itself.

For the life of me, I can't figure why in the world you're still there.

My advice is quit and find another place where you're appreciated, paid what you're worth (even if it's only a side gig) and BE HAPPY!

Try not to hang on to things, including jobs, boyfriends and whatever else that doesn't make you happy or provide a valuable positive purpose in your life - life is just TOO damn short.

P.S.  Have you considered purchasing your own studio and being your own boss?   You can obtain a business loan and open your own studio, make your own rules, decorate it as your wish and market to people you would like to become members.  It would appear from your posts, you're more suited for that. 

 

[Batya33]

4 hours ago, Jaunty said:

If you think she is unfairly benefitting from your ideas, either ask her for a raise or for some kind of commission structure where you get a kickback for new clients who have responded to one of your promos.

I was going to suggest commission too -

[Tinydance]

So what specific things has your boss asked you to do? Can you give a list of things/tasks that were required of you to perform? Have you heard of a "client centred approach"? It basically means that when you have a client you're providing services to, it's focused on them and what THEY want. In this case your boss is in a sense your client that you're providing your services to. You are there to do the work SHE wants you to do. She owns this business and she is the one paying you. You're allowed to have opinions but this isn't about your opinions mostly because you're not the boss. So you have to stick to the work you're being asked to do and not just start doing your own thing.

If your boss specifically asked you that you should start recruiting younger clients into her business, then sure. If she didn't then it's really none of your business that she only has older clients. As a matter of fact some people actually want to cater their business to only a specific age group or demographic. For example, here in Australia we have a chain of women's only gyms called Fernwood. Whoever initially stated this chain or owns it only wants women to work out at this gym. There are also gym classes like Zumba Gold which say they're aimed at seniors.

If your boss's clientele is all older people and she makes money from them then it's working for her. I actually think that getting younger clients might scare the older people away. Ladies who are in their 60's probably don't want to see some young hot 18-year-old girl working out next to them. Just because you're younger doesn't mean you need to push your younger client agenda. It's not your business, you are not the owner. If you don't like the job you don't have to work there but again, you are an employee there, not the boss. 

 

[Batya33]

20 minutes ago, Tinydance said:

So what specific things has your boss asked you to do? Can you give a list of things/tasks that were required of you to perform? Have you heard of a "client centred approach"? It basically means that when you have a client you're providing services to, it's focused on them and what THEY want. In this case your boss is in a sense your client that you're providing your services to. You are there to do the work SHE wants you to do. She owns this business and she is the one paying you. You're allowed to have opinions but this isn't about your opinions mostly because you're not the boss. So you have to stick to the work you're being asked to do and not just start doing your own thing.

If your boss specifically asked you that you should start recruiting younger clients into her business, then sure. If she didn't then it's really none of your business that she only has older clients. As a matter of fact some people actually want to cater their business to only a specific age group or demographic. For example, here in Australia we have a chain of women's only gyms called Fernwood. Whoever initially stated this chain or owns it only wants women to work out at this gym. There are also gym classes like Zumba Gold which say they're aimed at seniors.

If your boss's clientele is all older people and she makes money from them then it's working for her. I actually think that getting younger clients might scare the older people away. Ladies who are in their 60's probably don't want to see some young hot 18-year-old girl working out next to them. Just because you're younger doesn't mean you need to push your younger client agenda. It's not your business, you are not the owner. If you don't like the job you don't have to work there but again, you are an employee there, not the boss. 

 

I think maybe the issue is she was asked to broadly do business and marketing and make the business more profitable. Maybe there was a disconnect as in “make it more profitable but I want it geared to women of a certain age” etc so that if she then marketed to younger people that would be doing her own thing not what she was told to do. 

[Wiseman2]

18 hours ago, Alex39 said:

She tells me how she just wants to do fitness and teach fitness and hired me to run the business side, but she isn't actually letting me run it ever. 

Exactly. She wants to do more of what she does as far as teaching classes and hired you for some administrative duties. She did not hire you as a style consultant, interior decorator or to completely revise her business into something else. 

Unfortunately your ideas about that clashes with her business model. Perhaps her clientele likes this more Bohemian environment and obviously she gears her business toward the needs of an older clientele. 

[Batya33]

8 minutes ago, Wiseman2 said:

Exactly. She wants to do more of what she does as far as teaching classes and hired you for some administrative duties. She did not hire you as a style consultant, interior decorator or to completely revise her business into something else. 

Unfortunately your ideas about that clashes with her business model. Perhaps her clientele likes this more Bohemian environment and obviously she gears her business toward the needs of an older clientele. 

Did you really go into the weeds on what she meant by "business side?" This is a sole proprietorship so the definition likely will be far more flexible than if you worked for a larger company with defined roles. 

[catfeeder]

15 hours ago, Batya33 said:

I was going to suggest commission too -

I don’t agree—at this place. Given all the complaints you’re taking way too seriously already, despite their lack of impact on your pay, can you imagine these conflicts impacting your actual earning potential in this job?

Instead of sinking more emotional investment into the gig that ties your hands on closing sales, why not just market yourself to a chosen segment of businesses as a freelancer? You’d skip the minimum wage and work on specific projects that would pay you a going rate for professional consultation, design and execution.

If marketing is your business, why not market yourself more effectively instead of selling out your skills for near-zero pay to someone with whom you can’t even negotiate?

[Seraphim]

3 minutes ago, catfeeder said:

I don’t agree—at this place. Given all the complaints you’re taking way too seriously already, despite their lack of impact on your pay, can you imagine these conflicts impacting your actual earning potential in this job?

Instead of sinking more emotional investment into the gig that ties your hands on closing sales, why not just market yourself to a chosen segment of businesses as a freelancer? You’d skip the minimum wage and work on specific projects that would pay you a going rate for professional consultation, design and execution.

If marketing is your business, why not market yourself more effectively instead of selling out your skills for near-zero pay to someone with whom you can’t even negotiate?

I have to agree; my husband is doing a Masters so he can do freelance consulting later ( and also because he loves being a perpetual student on and off 😅. He loves learning so much. ) 

[Alex39]

So I have updates. 

I wanted to acknowledge, she hired me to get more customers in the door of all ages and she specified she doesn't have young people and wants more of them. 

I don't have anything against the older person centered business, but she has a studio that fits a 12 per class and she gets maybe two older people per class and then complains about no customers. Two people total.  A lot of her customers are older and are getting illnesses, injuries, cancer, and they leave the our studio and then we barely have any customers. I think she should be featured on the website, but she wants to be on every single page. No pictures of any younger people. 

When people dont come back or switch their studio preferences, she gets all mad and calls them personally inquiring about it. Who wants to be questioned about their life like that? 

She tries to control their lives. A customer will switch their studio membership to a more flexible option that works for their life better.  She gets mad and tells me to jack up the price of flexible options so people then want to buy the ones she wants that last longer money wise. You can't control customers and they might see the jacked up price and just walk away. 

Many older people on a fixed income can't afford her high prices. She's higher than anyone else in the area. The owner claims she's worth more. But her studio isn't as nice as the others. She has more experience teaching. Older people care about that. Younger people don't. 

Just having a population of older rich people doesn't seem sustainable long-term. 

She is pretty much attracting everyone exactly like her. 

The job was to do all the business tasks- sales, marketing, website design and management, accounting, social media, graphic design, customer service, account management.  I'm doing all of that for minimum wage. 

I love that sort of work. I'm good at it. 

Now she's acting like the last two months of high high sales didn't happen. 

I worked my butt off to get her those sales and used high level skills.

I went to school for 7 years for my education and have been a working professional for 10 years. I'm not a dumb person.

This month she didn't want me offering promotions, deals, etc like I did the last two months. So I haven't been. I've been promoting the business as is and no one is biting. It's January, people flock to the gym. Not hers.

Well her sales aren't doing great currently. So today her solution is to raise prices.

I told her I don't think that is the issue, because the last two months were strong and the prices were the same. It was that I offered strong promotions.

She's like yeah, we jack up the prices, then offer promotions.

She starts on and on about how she needs to make more money and such.

And how she wants experienced teachers to teach for her and she needs to pay them for their experience and up their pay. And she goes on and on about how experience equals higher pay.

I became deeply hurt and offended. The conversation grew tense. And I nicely told her how I have a lot of professional and business experience, and that I'm only making minimum wage and how I'd like to be paid for my experience level.

She says how- I was only talking about my teachers and not you, and I'm only paying you what I can.

And how teachers have tons of experience. I tell her how I am an experienced administrative and business professional.  Which is the job I'm doing.

She downs me saying how- well I have 20 years in this industry teaching fitness and you have no experience in this industry, and you need to gain some.

Now mind you, this lady hired me originally because I have an MBA and tons of business experience,  but suddenly today I know nothing and am not up to par.

I danced my entire life at a studio, taught dance at two different fitness studios for years, worked professionally for a gym doing business stuff for a year, and taught fitness at a gym for years.

I was deeply offended. And then she says how if I want to learn this industry and be a business person then I need to go online and look at her competitors in the area and see their prices and compare.

So insulting. I was shaking and upset. I worked so hard for my career.

So I go right online and pull up her competitors. They have nicer studios and I show her that they all have lower prices than she does.

She quickly got off the topic and wouldn't acknowledge the lower prices of the other places in the area.

She threw in my face that she's been in the industry for 20 years.

Yes, teaching fitness, not running a business.


She then goes on to tell me how she might even close the studio for a month this summer as she wants to vacation in Hawaii. She was just complaining about making no money. Not making ends meet. And not being able to pay me anything more. It was beyond insulting. I'm not worth a penny more, but she can vacation in Hawaii. The job she has ne doing requires a lot of work and brain power. It isn't bagging groceries- which in my area is paying more than she is. Crazy!

No one treats me this way. I worked way too hard to be treated this way. No one downgrades my success in that insulting way.

My parents think I'm her scapegoat, when her business isn't doing well, she'll blame me. I will not let my reputation be ruined by this.

I even have to use my own computer for this job and she barely gives me a space to work in.  Then says I'm not worth more money.


I raised her prices as she asked and now have found brainless local side gigs paying way more than what I'm making in my area. I plan on leaving her as quickly as possible, as soon as I can. 

[Batya33]

I think you're far too invested emotionally in a part time gig for minimum wage.  Deeply offended? Why? Because this person you've worked with a couple of months is saying nasty stuff? Isn't that on her -her issue?  I'd stop working for her - not sure if you even need to give notice.

[Seraphim]

You can walk out today. You have a job anyway. You just walk out and wash your hands of it . 

[Wiseman2]

20 minutes ago, Alex39 said:

. The job she has ne doing requires a lot of work and brain power. It isn't bagging groceries- which in my area is paying more than she is. 

You seem to take a lot of things personally. It doesn't seem like a good fit. Especially if you made more money as a Walmart greeter than where you are. You could probably start looking for something else. 

[Jaunty]

Wow, you need to get out of there immediately.  You are WAY too invested emotionally in this job and with this woman to be able to function in a healthy way there.

You do tend to go to this place frequently, with your family members or your friends, their weddings, their relationships etc. 

It's a boundary issue.  Do you understand that this is inappropriate? 

Quote

I'm not worth a penny more, but she can vacation in Hawaii.

I can certainly understand why you would have such a feeling but seriously, she owns a business, she has employed you PART TIME for MINIMUM WAGE.  You accepted it and went to work.  

Her vacation plans are really not your business to get all riled up about.   Lots of people have a vacation fund or whatever; they are not going to pay somebody more and not go on a trip.  Instead, she will just find another person willing to work for minimum wage.  Because, at this stage of her life, that's all she wants to put into this business of hers.

You need to be capable of keeping your emotions out of this kind of thing.    This will REALLY stand in the way of you getting very far in your career - it will stand in your way.

Rather than bothering getting all insulted, just tell her that it's time for you to move on, and do NOT get into some kind of personal nastiness with her. You seem to like to work in the fitness sphere and she might be connected.   I suggest you wish her well, tell her you hope you've been of some help to her, and move on.   

In the future, if you wish to contract yourself out as a business consultant, make your own business plan and market yourself with fees that reflect your high opinion of your abilities.  

Don't take a part time minimum wage gig.