Employees

The Office Employees
1

Does everyone on this site have employees and if you do why? Just wondering.

2

If you look at the last census completed by a few thousand from here i believe 80% are solo or with 1 helper

I have a small handful of guys. Hate losing out on opportunities, getting lazier every year, personal growth

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3

when youre pushing 50 you are riding your luck if you stay solo. youre risking burnout for 1 thing and

if a shoulder/knee/elbow goes TWang you will lose everything youve worked for overnight

im so glad i employed, i can pick and choose what i do personally and feel great about the job

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4

As a sit and wait for new guy to get his lunch…

Most will say hedging their bets. What happens if a solo guy gets hurt? I got a concussion 2 months ago.

Guys completed our biggest job ever without me and kept going.

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5

I do have employees, I guess I don’t get the question of why you would hrave employees. wouldn’t it be kind of obvious, bigger jobs, more income, make more money. Enjoy pain

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6

Many many reasons… here are a few quick ones

  • I need crews to meet demand
  • If I fall off a ladder or have any debilitating accident or illness I am out of business
  • To be honest… there are a lot of things out in the field I do not want to do… so I have employees trained to do it.
  • and the most important reason… I can either be out in the field covering a $13-$15 an hour tech job… or I can be in my office making plans and preparations to add tens of thousands of dollars in work to my schedule and not be an employee to my business.
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7

Better question is “where do you find good help?”

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8

that question is right up there with things like…
How do you end world hunger?
What is the meaning of life?

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9

I have a tight circle of guys when needed, a unique situation, mostly all started in tinting or vinyl and run their own biz. Very experienced with glass, But thats even less consistent than window cleaning, so they double as techs for me, and me for them when i get rained out and such. Flat day pay otherwise commission. Works out awesome for me.

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10

And what do you charge per window lol

11

[/quote]
How do you end world hunger?
What is the meaning of life?
[/quote]

Those are easy:

  1. Packs of ramen noodles and catsup packets

  2. 42

  3. Most good employees are already employed.

Now, if I knew the answer to:

  1. What’s wrong with her now?
  2. What did I come in here for?
  3. Why would so much hair need to grow there and not on my head?
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12

I was curious to know if this type of service required more than just one person. At times I feel like having a second person would help get the job done faster and sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.

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13

Number 3 has me worried as well.

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14

As far as finding employees, everyone I have hired is a friend of mine. I hired a guy who is a teacher in the off season and he comes and cleans blinds like a freaking beast. The other guy I have hired on is 22, cleans blinds and is training to be a window cleaner. If you can find someone to run your WFP while you clean interior glass, that’s all you need to start making money day 1. Yes, WFP takes training but it’s easier to train. He comes in, takes the screens out, cleans the tracks then hits the pole work outside and we are doing $800-1000 days in the first 2 weeks together just me and him. My other person is considered a sister in law and she is my office help and she kills it. Maybe I just got lucky, but find good people first, then train if you can’t find a window cleaner.

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15

Also, create the demand first. When you start to book more than 2 weeks out, look for your guy and just have him observe technique, clean screens, tracks, straight pulls, familiarize them with types of windows (scraper ok on this glass, not on that, etc), then get them to do work on the exterior. Then interior after you feel you are comfortable with them not dripping everywhere, working around belongings, etc. this is for residential, but a lot can be applied to commercial.

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16

Also, don’t up your workload when you first get your guy. Training takes a lot of time away from the work you do.

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17

im not sure about that. you need plenty of work for the new guy. nothing worse than having to say to him,after a few days "uhoh weve hit a quiet spot ,i dont need you "
can remember when i took on employee no.3 parttime, after only a week i was suddenly faced with this .id took on too many workers ,and not enuf work,gulp… i decided not to tell him and kept him on board [out leafletting] at great expense ,well it ended up costing me a £1k hit before the corner turned and work ramped up for him.
im SOOOO glad i did,i knew he would have lost confidence in me if soon after starting id said goodbye -hes been 4 yrs fulltime with me now and totally reliable- never knows how close he came to parting company in those early days

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18

I consider providing an employee enough hours to stick around as an investment. It is time consuming to find and train replacements so we need to find ways to retain good employees during the quiet times.
For several months during the slow time of our winter I chose to take home less to provide hours for my employee. I also gave her a raise every month because of her reliability and thoroughness and I bought her a bike as a retention bonus for staying 6 months (she doesn’t have a drivers license).
Now my investment is paying off. My employee has been doing the nightly/weekly cleanings for my clients while I am out of town this month assisting my wife with her medical issues.
When I get back I will have enough work with WC and carpet cleaning and her hours won’t need to be reduced very much.

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19

The one and only reason to have employees, and this is true for any business, is to do more work. More work = more money for the business owner.

Let’s say on your own you grow your business to do $100,000 worth of work a year. You can’t physically do anymore yourself. So you hire someone for $40,000 and can now output $180,000 worth of work. You gained $40,000 in value having that employee.

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20

there is an inherent inefficiency to two people working together. 2 people will not do 200% the work of 1 person but rather 170-190%. that said it’s safer having 2 and it’s much less boring

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