"Plan tae keep your salary expense at its present figure, which is based on $30,000.00 worth of sales annually.
"Ye can afford to pay eleven cents for salaries oot o' every dollar ye get. Give eleven cents on every dollar ye take, above $30,000.00, to your salespeople, as a bonus and divide it among them according to their salaries. For example, suppose next year ye do $40,000.00 worth of business—and ye ought tae be able tae do this, because ye're selling at a slightly better rate than $35,000.00 a year noo. If ye do, ye secure $10,000.00 above your sales quota. Eleven per cent. of $10,000.00 is $1,110.00, which ye could deestribute among your folk."
I referred to my note book of expenses, and said: "Our salaries at present total $71.00 a week."
"Including yoursel'?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Weel," continued Jock, "that bonus would add $22.00 weekly to that $71.00. That means for every ten dollars o' salary now earned there would be added $3.14 bonus."
"How would it work out in Larsen's case?" I asked. "He gets $20.00 a week."
"His bonus would bring his salary to aboot $26.00 a week. Another way o' putting it is that every dollar o' weekly salary seecures a bonus o' $16.12 a year. I would suggest ye pay a bonus every quarter—if your quarter's quota o' sales is seecured."
"Suppose we need extra help?" I said.
"If ye hae tae have extra help, the expense o' it'll hae to come oot o' the $1,100.00 bonus, or whatsoever the amount might be. Unless ye did this, ye'd be exceeding your original allowance for wages. If your people know that, the less people there are wor-rkin', the more money each o' them makes, they'll all o' them work as har-rd as they can to accomplish the results wi'oot adding extra people tae tha payroll. There is one ither thing I must warn ye of, and that is, tell all your people that this is only a plan tae be tried for a year, and that each year ye'll decide upon the sales quota according tae the growth o' the beesiness.