There's an important thing that is not covered here. Currency fluctuations.
Assuming you pay people in their own currency (which is useful to make sure they don't pay unnecessary fees, and also that they get a consistent pay each month). How do you keep salaries consistent globally?
Do you adjust them each month to compensate fluctuations? Sucks for those that just got a pay cut.
I don't know the answer, I think the way Buffer does it is the best of the options I've come across so far. I'd like a better solution.
To be successful, you can do nothing poorly. That's the trickiest bit.
If you do any of these poorly, you don't have much chance:
- Product Usefulness
- Usability
- Customer Support
- Pricing
- Advertising/Marketing
- Reliability (eg. uptime)
Just one of those being bad is enough to sink you. I think the hardest part is needing to not drop the ball on any of these things.
Don't just perfect one of them and hope it compensates the others. Our tendency is to work on the ones we're best at, but you just can't afford to neglect anything.
Demo doesn't imply fake features. For me demo would be not my data, perhaps a sample set in there.
I'd have no problem if it said "there's a bunch of features not yet implemented, we have the buttons there to gauge interest and we'll work on the most needed ones".
@macournoyer, reading the comments here, it sounds like your value proposition isn't articulated clearly enough. There's a bunch of mentions of the price and not knowing what they are getting.
In your comments here, you mention the importance of your instruction and teaching, which I think is great. Perhaps make that clearer on the website?
You make an incorrect assumption that causes an incorrect conclusion.
Not all employers want to pay as little as the candidate will accept. I can state this as fact as I am an employer and I do not do that.
As an employer, I want a happy and loyal staff member. Negotiating them down on price doesn't achieve that. I have never offered less than someones initial asking price, and sometimes paid more.
I think it's wrong to assume the employer and employee have differing objectives. We hopefully both want a successful relationship/partnership. Achieving a salary that both are happy with is part of that.
As for your example, again you assume that the employer makes an offer or the employee demands something. Can't it just be a discussion to find the most appropriate salary? That's how I do it.
It's a really complicated thing. I agree the salary should be relative to the amount of value you add. But what a "good salary" is, depends on where you live.
If you do an amazing job, and I pay you an amazing amount. That amazing amount could vary depending on your cost of living.
I agree in a perfect world that you should get paid the same no matter where you are, and globalisation will probably head in that direction. But so will cost of living balancing out too (if people in lower cost of living countries are earning lots more money, the price of things will go up.... supply/demand).
I guess ultimately, when comparing what you pay people, why use the dollar amount as opposed to the benefit to their lives. Shouldn't you be paying everyone an amount that equally benefits them? Why should one person be far greater benefited from their salary? Ultimately it's what you do with the money that matters, not the number on the note.
I'd be fine with that. It's used as a discussion point to arrive at a salary the person is happy with. If your original salary isn't one you want to base it off, that's ok.
You can be anywhere in the world, you can work whenever you want. We even just expect 30 hours p/week, with full-time pay.
I know this comment is self-promoting, but we're a small bootstrapped and profitable startup from Australia. It's not easy to get the word out... so am taking the opportunity here.
Assuming you pay people in their own currency (which is useful to make sure they don't pay unnecessary fees, and also that they get a consistent pay each month). How do you keep salaries consistent globally?
Do you adjust them each month to compensate fluctuations? Sucks for those that just got a pay cut.
I don't know the answer, I think the way Buffer does it is the best of the options I've come across so far. I'd like a better solution.