Now I’m a bucket bum. LOL
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Oh well. at least you’re low stress
No stress😎
On second thought you’re right, low stress. Haha
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Thats kinda where Im at. I went from stress city trying to put all the peices together to who really cares country just by saying eff it. I’ll do it myself.
Feels great. Low stress and making damn good money. You don’t HAVE to have a big business and employees to be successful. Success is in the mind as much as the wallet.
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I always send my best guy. Customers like that. 
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Sounds like a smoking deal to me unfortunately. I just got a quote for 2700 for just my business with one employee (me) exempted. Wtf? IT DOESN’T COVER ANYONE! I think it’s these big corporations closing the door behind them.
If I hired my mom, I’d 1099 her…
There’d be few hoops to jump through to satisfy the IRS requirements for a subcontractor, but it seems like a totally different ball game than trying to classify a worker in the field as a sub.
(Ironically, my mom would probably be more interested in doing field-work than office work, lol)
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I’m really happy to see more of this sentiment on the forum lately. It seemed like a common refrain a few years ago, that you’re, “Not a business without employees.”
Well, maybe not a business in the full sense of the word. But you have control of your career, your income, and your stress level. Not everyone is cut out for hiring employees. Not everyone should feel like they need to.
And you don’t have to run yourself into the ground to make a really decent income. I was speaking on the phone with one forum member a couple days ago, and he’s taking home as much income working 3 days a week with his wife, as he was making with 2-3 full time crews. Mind blowing.
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Thanks for sharing Alex. I know I could never handle having employees.
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I feel the big difference with employees is what type of accounts your after.
Residential and route no problem getting by without employees. Too much down time to structure employees that is efficient for a business payroll.
Commercial mid to high rise working solo is gonna be tough just due to the large amount of work no ones gonna want you sitting at their business solo for a week washing Windows.
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Ya really learn to be efficient that’s for sure. I do like 15 homes and have 8 days a month route a year. The rest is commercial from 1-5 stories. Wfp helps a lot and so does the occasional sub.
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This is a really valid point. Being that I am part time, I really haven’t established what I want from this business yet. My goal is to make extra money to save until my job goes away and then have a good, solid business to fall back on if/when that happens. I have 12 storefronts that I service each month from 1-4 times per month. My idea is ti have my employee do the majority of the storefront while I am working and then spend my days off working with him on residential during peak season and commercial work when the opportunity presents itself. If we pick up enough work to keep him busy all year long then I’m fine with making less in the business until my job goes away. Having him on payroll opens up bigger opportunities in the larger, more lucrative commercial market. I like the idea of $2500 revenue in a two or three day job on one commercial account and then another $2500 over the course of a month with 8-10 residential jobs. We’ll see what quotes I get with the right codes. It might not be that bad. It’s just hard to swallow right now because I only have one commercial on the hook that requires it and the cost of compliance pretty much wipes out any profit from that job. If I had 10 lined up I wouldn’t even care.
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I’ve gauged employees and the need for them being worthwhile for the business is for an employee to at least be able to produce 60,000 a year in sales. Much under that isn’t worthwhile for the costs involved.
Also once we reached a higher tax bracket we had to consider if it’s worth being there or to drop some sales due to huge increase in taxes it put us at. Being on the low end of the higher rate didn’t work, you need to be well in it to out weigh the higher expenses that follow. It was either drop some sales or go much bigger.
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Roll with one or two crews or more than eight because anything in between is not profitable. That’s what I’ve been hearing from my friends and acquaintances over the last few decades.
PS
The sweet spot is 2.5 trucks. Right or wrong? What have you heard?
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Wrong way to think of the employee situation I believe. Most people that do hire employees just get stuck in that middle area where they are working more and making less money than when they were solo.
When you have employees you are helping them support their families or their own lives. The employee has LESS stress than the “owner/operator” and it is usually the owner or managers that facilitate that. Employers are paying all sorts of fun extra taxes which are a headache sure… but they do go somewhere and help someone in some way.
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I just had a BWC audit and ended up finding out I was over paying on certain jobs and got a new code for half the rate I was paying for CCU and Commerical work. 
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no they don’t
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I agree with you, we all hate taxes.
After reading this thread yesterday, I went to my insurance agent for a new quote with the two different codes listed above. Turns out they had quoted me TRIPLE for the high rise code as the one for three floors and under. I definitely don’t do high rise or much ladder work if avoidable. $830 a year for one employee making 18k a year.
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They are the highest of all. I used to labor for a roofing contractor. He payed thru the nose and I was under the table at the time.
