When a key employee leaves your small business, you feel it everywhere.

Your regular customers notice.

Daily operations slow down.

The whole atmosphere changes, and their absence affects more than just their daily tasks.

While you might not have the deep pockets of big corporations, you can still build a workplace where good people want to stay. The right approach costs less than you think and pays off when your best workers stick around.

Here are ways to keep your best employees without breaking the bank.

Good employees are hard to find and even harder to replace. When a team member leaves, it affects your company in more ways than one, such as the money you spend, the time it takes and the stress it puts on everyone else. Hiring, training and covering shifts all slow you down and stretch your team thin.

In small businesses, every team member wears multiple hats. They attend to customers, restock shelves, answer phones and also make deliveries. When one person is out sick or burned out, everyone else has to pick up the slack.