Aspiring entrepreneurs = good employees?

[Tonearm]

I've hired my first couple of employees. They are boyfriend and girlfriend to each other and they're new friends of mine. They are also aspiring entrepreneurs and have told me they want to do what I do, and that part of the reason they want to work for me is to learn about the whole thing.

I'm not worried about "trade secrets" being stolen or anything like that. It's just a niche retail business that has been built up over the last 7 years. No secret except lots and lots (and lots and lots) of hard work.

Are these types of people likely to be good employees, bad, or do they generally have no such tendency?

[lorax]

Is there any financial incentive for them other than a paycheck? If not, then they're likely to learn what they can and simply leave. If you can provide some form of incentive, then they could turn out to be much more productive AND long term.

[Tonearm]

Tell me more. Are you talking about giving them a percentage of the business? A commission? I'm all for motivating employees to stick around and do a good job.

[LifeinAsia]

They key is whether they just feel like employees or have more of a stake in how your company does. In some cases, you can nurture their entreprenurial bent to focus their energies better to help make your business grow. But they have to be able to feel that it's "their" busienss as well.

Besides a full-blown employee stock ownership program, there are smaller ways, such as letting them have more control over certain projects with a concrete profit-sharing component. Definitely listen to their ideas for new products and new ways of doing things.

[Tonearm]

I think this is really important so I'm going to start a new thread on it. Thanks a lot for the input thus far.