By Rieva Lesonsky
If you’re an Amazon employee, the company has news for you. The bad news is they want you to quit. The good news is, they’re incentivizing you to do so. The company announced a new incentive program today saying it would offer up to $10,000 in startup costs and pay your salary for three months if you quit to start your own delivery business.
As Amazon is trying to make one-day shipping standard, it presumably needs delivery businesses to aid its effort. The New York Times reports, “The new incentives build on a program the company started last June to encourage anyone, employee or not, to get into the competitive business of last-mile package delivery.”
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior Vice President for worldwide operations, told the Times their employees wanted to participate in the program by were struggling with the transition from employee to business owner. He says, “Now we have a path.”
Amazon is also offering access to technology and training, “discounts on insurance, Amazon-branded vans and uniforms,” and is promising a steady stream of packages to deliver to the new delivery businesses.
For Amazon employees looking to become small business owners, these incentives certainly lower the risk of business startup. Of course, once you get started, you’d be smart to seek other clients as well, since it’s never a good idea to have all or even most of your business tied to one client.
According to the Times, since the program began more than 200 businesses have already started, employing “thousands of local drivers.”
Photo courtesy: Amazon
