Beauty help: so I started an independent record label about 4 months ago and Im really struggling with it. - Help.com

Perhaps you should tell them your full situation, I think it’s okay to tell them exactly what you just told us :), with out all the star-words would be so much more effective in my opinion..!

Here’s what I think you should do…

Work really hard yourself. I’m sure you already do, but even when they decide to slack off, keep working. Work on getting something new into the company, like financing, a new artist, something. Make sure they know how hard you’re working - as the OWNER of the label. YOU are pushing to make things happen.

I think you might need to let one or two of them go. Don’t let someone go just to make a statement, let someone go for good business reasons. The side effect may be that you are ’starting’ to mean business.

Give a couple of the best performers a small raise.

People, in an employment setting, do tend to follow the efforts shown by their superiors. You are their boss, and you are the owner of a company. While you do have responsibilities to your employees as individuals, you also have responsibilities to sustain your organization and fulfill your customers needs. You are the boss, kick some butt, don’t be a push over. DO get mad if your team isn’t performing. React strongly when they do not perform.

Good artists love to create. If they’re just sitting around gettin’ drunk, they’re not inspired. Artists get motivated when they are inspired, not the other way around. And the inspiration can easily come from you by demonstrating that you actually want this thing to go somewhere.

OK, I’m done now :-)