3RD Employee

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arnettda

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Looking for advice from people that have been there. How can you tell if you are ready for more employees. I have two full time employees that I keep Busy, The last one someone I knew I hired to help me for two weeks and it will be three years in October he has been here. I am not Lazy but am tired of being in my office at 10 oclock at night.
I pass up a fair amount of calls and am thinking if I hire a 3rd person they will do a lot of service work. Which I do now and will then give me more time to run my business. I also know it is a long winter and do not want to have to lay anyone off.
If I hire another person will I be able to do everything I need to do during the day, and my days are usually 9-10 hours before I go into my office when my kids go to bed. Or will I be just as busy if not more because I have more employees. I have a few goods leads for more work which I have not been jumping on because I can not keep up as it is. I have a very hard time saying no but I have thought of just keeping the two employees I have a say I can not get there.
Thanks
 
How much of your time is spend on administration and how much on finding and doing the work? You might be better off with a part-timer to deal with paperwork, supplies runs, etc, while you're out making money. Unless, of course, you like the paperwork :D.

(added) Are you making good use of outside services? With only a few employees, it's often more efficient to use the instead of doing it yourself. I'm thinking of things like payroll, accounting, etc.
 
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zbang said:
How much of your time is spend on administration and how much on finding and doing the work? You might be better off with a part-timer to deal with paperwork, supplies runs, etc, while you're out making money. Unless, of course, you like the paperwork :D.

(added) Are you making good use of outside services? With only a few employees, it's often more efficient to use the instead of doing it yourself. I'm thinking of things like payroll, accounting, etc.
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I have a bookkeeper, She does all of my paper work she can, Which is a good portion of it. A lot of my time is spent on estimating and looking at Jobs.
 
petersonra said:
maybe what you really need is an estimator/salesman.
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An estimator/salesman for a 3 man shop? That would seem to be a lot of overhead for the existing owner & 2 employees.

How about hiring someone part time and then seeing if the work will hold for a full timer?

Or, can you sub-contract out some of the work to another contractor that isn't as busy? That's what I do. I don't make as much money as when my own employees to the work, but it helps move along the jobs and I still make a profit on them.
 
electricguy61 said:
An estimator/salesman for a 3 man shop? That would seem to be a lot of overhead for the existing owner & 2 employees.
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A lot of contractors are absolutely shocked when they realize how much of their time is spent on what amounts to being a salesman.

I am not suggesting he go out and hire a salesman for $100k a year, but a retired guy looking for a few days a week of work might not be a terrible choice as a salesman/estimator. And it can be mostly a commissioned position so the costs stays under control as long as the commission is a function of job profit and not job price.
 
Right now, from what you are saying, it appears that you are turning down work. If you had another electrician, you could get that work and also be freed up to possibly secure enough work to keep him working full time. It is a chance you take in growing your business. Turning down jobs isn't good business sense as they will turn to someone else and you will lose that chance unless you are personally acquainted with your client and they understand your personnel shortage. You are not going to know what is behind the door until you open it.
 
mirawho said:
Right now, from what you are saying, it appears that you are turning down work. If you had another electrician, you could get that work and also be freed up to possibly secure enough work to keep him working full time. It is a chance you take in growing your business. Turning down jobs isn't good business sense as they will turn to someone else and you will lose that chance unless you are personally acquainted with your client and they understand your personnel shortage. You are not going to know what is behind the door until you open it.
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But in meantime you are better off to tell people you just can't do it then to tell them you will do it and then never show up in a reasonable time because you are too busy. Customers don't like that and still appreciate you being honest with them.
 
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