How do you pay your employees?!?!?!

Curb Appeal Pros

New member
[FONT=&quot]Hey guys,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So 1st year is almost in the books we have done 6X the work we thought we would do and let me tell you business is SWEET! There is honestly nothing like NOT working for the man and running a business for yourself its a great feeling. Yeah its hard work, yeah its WAY more than 40 hours a week but man its a good feeling making nothing from something. So here is my questions to everyone. 1. How do you pay your employees? Do you pay them by job or by how much the job is? Hell do you pay them by the hour? My 2nd question is at what point did you add a 2nd rig? I mean there is no reason why you cant do 1,000 is business a day as long as you have the work its easy. However if you do the math the numbers are retarded you can make 200k no problem as long as you have your name out there and doing the work. 2-3 roofs a day for 3 house washes a day is 1K no problem. However did you add your 2nd rig when your going 6 houses a day and you cant keep or or do you just book out 3 weeks and grind? I know everyone will have there own opinion and there will be no right or wrong answer but I want to learn from YOUR mistakes and avoid making my own
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haha please post your reply and let me know what you think... [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thanks [/FONT]
 
When you start to get 3-4 weeks out in scheduling is when you know to add a second crew. We pay our guys by the hour. Yes there is a nice profit in any business if you run it correctly. That said you need to know your daily numbers. Before adding any extra crews you should design a training plan for new hire's to keep the quality of work you want from them. Go get emm and good luck..
 
Here are the rules.
I pay by the hour. We guarantee 40 hours, they have paid vacations, sick time, and health insurance including vision and Dental. We start at $12 an hour, and work year round.
You can also pay by percentage or commission. There are advantages to this, because you are able to more closely control labor costs. Most guys try to have their labor come in at around 25-30% per job. Those numbers can be fudged depending on how much you are making, size of your business, and other intangibles. In any case, legally they need to make at least minimum wage, on average for the week. The downside is that they rush through and get the job done super fast by cutting corners. No one likes to cut corners.
Salary has the same upside, pitfalls and problems as commission. The only difference is, you are paying them the exact same thing every week. There are some that will say, well, if we cut their pay on slow weeks, and then just go back to salary on busy weeks, we will be okay. A good Labor lawyer will cost you a ton of money, and make mincemeat of the variable salary scenario. On top of that, I look at it as being totally unethical, and unfair. You do need to make sure employee manual is up to date, along with your absence policy. Some things to consider are whether you are offering paid sick time, and number of sick days allowed per year. You also have to be prepared to lose you most valuable employee if he or she gets a long term illness.

There is a lot more to it, but those are the basics.

As for when to add another rig, I have my personal rig. The only time it goes out is when I am working. My guys have all their own equipment. Yes, I realize my position is different than most. When my personal rig is needed on jobs, I buy a new one, and hire someone to replace the person that has been being trained. It works for me. Incidentally, I am at 45 employees, and have not lost a person or had to hire for 5 months. Something about treating people well...
 
I would hire a employee to work under you on your rig, before I do that I would make sure as James stated that you have a training program in place, then you can see it in action, and tweak as needed. I would pay hrly at first and dangle the percentage commission out in front of them for the future if things go good, I might not even mention it until the first year is up and even that may be to early. I would study my companys history and see the slow periods and have a plan how I will keep my guys happy during the slow times.
 
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