Hiring employees

[grnwnv]

I just started my company this summer. Things are going well, the truck and trailer are logod up and getting attention and the phone is starting to ring. I've been doing some residential work and have even got a couple of small commercial accounts lined up for next spring. Here's my question; at what point did you guys hire one or more employees? After a certain ammount of accounts? Did you start them off part time? How did you hire?
Any comments appreciated. Thanks!

[Phil Nilsson]

Depends on funding the worker but most take on part timer till hours are full or getting fuller ... IF you have money to invest in a worker strongly advise that the very first person be full time and of the inclination to be trained as "crew leader" potential this is for any market that has growth potential for you.

If you hire undependable types in the beginning and they leave you ... back to square one at a time when you would then be overloaded with work. Also know that workers can make or break a new business just as fast as an owner can ... maybe even faster!

Phil

[Elwood]

HIre quality people, not just warm bodies. The people you hire represent your company. Be it quality, image, workmanship, etc., they represent you.

Hire a part time guy at first. Hiring new people will be a learning experience for you and being a boss will be a new experience as well.

A string of part time guys will lead to scheduling nightmares for you though. A part time guy is a good idea, but once you start to use help, you will like it. When the time is right, a full time guy is the way to go. If you find the right full time guy, Phil is right, look at this guy as a possible future crew leader/foreman, etc.

As for when the time is right to hire, when your working in the field gets in the way of your time needed for sales combined with being able to afford an employee.

Good Luck!

[grnwnv]

Thank you both, I appreciate the comments! I did a pretty big job yesterday, three 15' hedges, could have used the help already!

cheers.

[Rustic Goat]

Just a point to keep in mind.
A helper/employee is just like a bank note on a piece of equipment, except they want to get paid weekly.
Don't know if there's a magic number of jobs to hit before you really need to find hired help, you should know by the feeling of being overwhelmed with work without a break.
If possible find someone that already has a job and looking to make extra money that you can hire on an as needed basis, or x # of hours per week. But only when your work load demands it.
It takes more job volume than you might think to feed that extra hand and maintain the same profit % you were making on your own.
By all means, hire when you NEED to, just make sure the volume is there and your help'spay doesn't cancel out your profit.
Your hedge job is a perfect example. Consider what you made on that job, then subtract x $ for the number of hours you would have had a helper there. Are you still making as much? No, of course not, but having that helper would enable you to get done sooner and go to other work. So that doesn't lighten the work load does it? But it should enable you to increase volume.

Just be sure you have sustained biz before hiring so it doesn't turn into another financial liability.

[Phil Nilsson]

When you get to the hiring stage, that's when the real challenges of running a business start. On the one hand, to do more sales you need to sell more labor hours ... someone elses because you're only one person with just so much time ... on the other, the cost of doing so does put you at some degree of risk. Risk of what? ... not getting your moneys worth from an employee, getting poor quality work from them, and delegating to have others do work on your behalf.

You'll need a way to account for an employee's actions ...

. quality control followups to keep customers happy
. cost versus what an employee produces
. managing employee time and expense
. covering yourself to avoid worker dependency (not being able to replace them if they quit, not being able to find alternatives to getting the work done)

Anyway, it's a whole new ball game because on average an employee will NOT produce as much work as you can so that's another strong reason why you must track your cost numbers carefully ... make sure what they produce in billable sales is MORE than what they cost.

Expectations? ... you need to know what is a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. If you gave them 8 hours worth of work did it take them 10 hours to do it? ... that sort of thing.

I'll tell ya, it's a very strange feeling you get in your stomach when you're waiting for your snow plowing crews to show up at 3am in the morning with 6 inches on the ground ... and thinking to yourself ... what will I do if they don't show? It takes faith and planning for worst case scenarios

Phil

[grnwnv]

Thanks Rustic Goat and Phil, Great advice!!!

Cheers,

[Phil Nilsson]

Not taking employees for granted ... knowing that employees ARE the company and have the greatest impact on business success.

The company (is) what the company (does) ... when the owner does the work, the company is the "owner" when employees do the work the company is "employees" representing the owner and the company.

Phil

[ryry]

AMEN