Small business question?

If I had a small busines (ex. small pizza shop), does that mean I'd (the owner) have to open up the store every morning and close it every night by myself? If one of my employees were to open the store in the morning, do I give them the keys to the store? How do I know if I can trust them? -> is there a contract/agreement required? HOW? thanks. I'm interested in owning a business. I'm 16. Don't know much.

You would have to start out opening and closing the restaurant yourself until you have gained enough confidence in your employee(s) to have them do it. Once you trust your day person, you would give them the keys and have them keep in contact with you, but it would be in your best interest to be there as much as you can to keep on top of bookwork and other things that need to be done. For the first year or two, you are pretty much strapped to the restaurant to make sure that everything runs like clock-work, but once you have faith in your employees, you can start to delegate the opening and closing. You have to have everything in place to have all the cash-outs done correctly so you can monitor the business.

I admire your spirit in wanting to own a business, and wish you the very best of luck. Make sure you hunt down a few business books to read so that when the time comes, you really know exactly what you want and how to get it.

Answers to these questions would only be speculative on my part. What I can tell you is that NO employee will ever care for your buasiness like you do. Especially in the pizza business where there is a high turnover rate of generally young, unskilled people, you'll find it dificult to get a dependable employee. Lets face it, no employee really wants to make a pizza shop his lifelong carreer, so what leverage do you have if he doesn't show up on time, or does something wrong. Fire him...big deal McDonalds is hiring all the time.. and after that Burger King..you see. An employment contract with someone at this level is a waste of time. The way I see it, you'll have to do everything yourself until you can actually afford to hire a manager, someone who you can offer good pay and benefits and therefore give them a reason to take on responsibility and do a good job for you. Congrats for being 16 and contemplating something other than Ashley Simpson's ***. Although that is important as well.