Hire or Stay Solo? Your experiences?

[Tom023]

I'm 17 and have been operating solo (and illegitimately :eek: ) for 5 years now. I am becoming legitimate for next season, and am wondering what your experiences are with hiring an additional employee. Would I really be profiting off of him without a ton of extra responsibility on my part (given that he's reliable, honest, hardworking, etc), ? Any certain positives or negatives that may or may not be obvious?

Any and all help appreciated

[Envy Lawn Service]

You're still young and have time on your side! Worry about becoming legitimate first and run that way atleast one season. You're going to see a change in expense/profit ratio as it is. Take things a step at a time and don't jump the gun here.

I'm a businessman (own and operate 2 businesses) and have been for years. I'll tell you first hand, employees would be a last resort for me in this business! That's not to say that you can't earn a profit from them, I just choose not to so i can avoid the red tape and expense. At your age, I suggest you do the same for a while.

Just my 2 cents...

[TJLC]

Some people have good luck with employees, I personally have not had very good luck with them. Thats not to say you shouldn't hire. I do have one guy I use sometimes on the weekends and has worked out well so far. He is a good worker which is a rare thing to find. Good luck.

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

I used to have employees and got tired of babysitting. You'll go through 10 guys before you find a good one. If you can stay solo, pay the bills and pay yourself decent, then do it. Like mentioned before, I have a couple guys I can call on if I get in a jam or land a large landscaping job. As for mowing, I prefer to do it myself. I'm too picky to let anyone else do it.

[walker-talker]

You have to ask yourself if you want your business to grow or not. You can grow your business to a certain point without hiring employees, but there come a time when you'll have to make that decision of whether to hire or not. Use this winter to get educated.

Good luck
MATT

[TLS]

As for being Illegitimate. Your 17 you CANT legally become a business owner until your 18. When you become 18, go down to the courthouse and apply for a Ficticious Name. This will start the ball rolling toward Sole Proprietorship. Stay that way until you buy a house. Then maybe think about becoming a LLC or Incoporating.

My advise, stay SOLO! Get everything built up to where your working 7 days a week 12 hrs a day. THEN start looking for helpers! The longer you can remain SOLO, the more money your gonna have in your wallet!

Good Luck!

[rodfather]

I say HIRE .

I have way too much work to do solo (almost 200 accounts).

I pay my people $15 - $20 per hour. I bill them out at $65 per hour.

Do the math...:D

[walker-talker]

When you make that transition after hiring someone you are going to lose money to your bottom line, but now you will have time to take on more accounts. Like rodfather said, do the math and you will see for yourself.

MATT

[Alan Bechard]

Stay Solo, until you max out your time / equipment. I am not sure that I am saying this well but bear with me, round numbers, not real. I know nothing about what you do or what you have now, so if I am incorrect, I apologize in advance.

Say you are 1 guy and you mow with a 21 and a 12" disc weedeater. You have 5 accounts and that is all you can do in a day.

You buy a 17" weedeater, now you can do 6 accounts

You buy a rider, Now you are doing 8 accounts by the end of the day.

You buy a walk behind and a spare weedeater, now you are doing 12 accounts a day, you still have folks on a waiting list.

You get a 60" ZTR and you are blazing doing 15 accounts by yourself, you have looked at your schedule and your properties you are mowing just as fast as possible there. Your schedule is real tight, you weeded out the PITA customers, you have 5 neighborhoods that you do 1 pr day with all the lawns side by side so your travel time is minimized.

Now you need another body. (and you have the equipment on hand to keep them busy)

One employee can be worse than 5. and one will not double your output.

I would suggest you think through employees very, very carefully. At your age I would reccomend against it.

just my 2cents, maybe you knew this already.

Al Bechard

[Envy Lawn Service]

Alan,

Very very well said! Bigger, better, faster equipment is always a better 1st choice to expand business. A good ol' mower is a cheaper, more reliable answer until you are total topped out as you described.

I have 2 lawn tractors now. I'm topped out running one by myself. I'll be investing in one mower that is more productive rather than an employee to use the other mower I already have.

[morturf]

I guess you should look at this thread??!!??

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=36785

[The Lawn Choupique]

Just go ahead and hire the employees. At you age, it would be hard to make a mistake that you will not be able to over come with time. And at your age, you have the benefit of having time on your side. Whats the worst thing that can happen? It don't work out and you will have gained valauble experience that will help you make it work for you in the future. I just don't see a down side here. As everyone knows you really do lean more from your mistakes than your successes.

[Evan528]

Originally posted by TLS
As for being Illegitimate. Your 17 you CANT legally become a business owner until your 18. When you become 18, go down to the courthouse and apply for a Ficticious Name.


Good Luck!

I dont beleave thats true Tommy. I actually registerd my business and became legit when I was 15. Besides a giggle of the lady in the office where I called to register when she asked for my date of birth I had no problem!;)

[EJK2352]

I worked for a lawn service before I started my own. They had constant help problems. So I made up my mind to go SOLO when I started my own. I have absolutely zero regrets going solo. :) ;) :) ED

[Tom023]

This is very useful info! I really appreciate it. Any one else?

[ProMo]

after 11 years im slowly getting to the point i need to hire still raising rates and maximizing what I can do solo ive almost turned my biz around after almost going under last year.Iive been foreman for several large lco's and have seen a lot of nightmare scenerios(2 kids decided they didnt want to work any more took the truck and headed back to shop ,guy adjusting his glasses and walked into other guys weedeater that was up in the air that was funny,girl sunk a brand new mower in 45 foot deep retention pond,fired a whole crew one day when they stumbled upon a field of mushrooms etc etc etc)

[dmk395]

Read some business books, it just depends on if you want to be a worker or a manager.

[lsylvain]

I've been in the should I hire somebody or not stage for 2 years now. Still thinking about it, but wont.

I only mow 20 hrs a week (in college)

Between class and homework that stretches me pretty far not counting maintainance etc.

Every Winter I sit down print out my Income statements and do job costing for each job. Take about the bottom 25% and dump them. Keeping the 75% most profitable jobs. That way the next season I have room to pick up new customers at higher profit margins.

As the season goes on I may starting picking up stuff that's not as good to fill up time.

The first year I started keeping track I only made $16 per hour profit after tax.


the second year it jumped to $35

This year I havn't done yet but it looks like it should be about $45-50.

[Brickman]

Employees Suck.

Need I say more?

[therainman]

If you can not complete all of you accounts weekly, and you are finacially able to support two people with your biz, go with it. \
Employees if managed properly can and will make you money.

Be certain to know all of your operating cost up front.
Then make certain you can maintain or improve your profitablity with the extra cost with employees. Insurance is going to be a major factor for you now. Extra wear on equipment from abuse is going to happen, these people to not want to break stuff, but that is not their mower. They do not have any investment in it so it is easier not to take good care of it.

research your cost carefully, when you understand them all ...then do it.

shawn

[scott's turf]

I have a FT job and run my lawn care biz on the side. Last year I had an employee and I worked about 300 hrs for the season. This year my FT employee quit half way through the year and I cut back my hours on my FT job to take care of some of the lawns. Well this year I made about 1k more than last but I worked over 200 more hours and lost money from my FT job. Yes employees are a pain but if the situation is right they can make you lots more money.

[mklawnman]

Im 19 right now been in the biz for about 2yrs now, ive been lucky that my brother is my other helper that i pay. He's reliable and dependable but as for hiring i've been hearing it can be a pain in the you know what at times. IM saying try to stay solo as possible, look for someone in your family who can maybe help ya out?? Theres more involved if you hire, insurance wise, more stress. Its up to you on how big you want your business to be, want it to be bigger than well you may have to hire people, just look for a good dependable person if you do hire.
Good Luck
Matt

[MATTHEW]

You have to choose between 2 things.

Money & headaches.

Employees will earn you more gross revenue, like Rodfather said.

But you have to be willing to deal with the headaches. Here are the headaches I've had:

1. Tons of extra paperwork with tax issues & workers comp.
2. Time spent hiring & firing. (finding a good one will take a while)
3. More equipment repairs (who owns it?)
4. They tend to call off when it is most inconvienient.
5. They don't take kindly to getting laid off (in winter or drought)
6. They can make serious mistakes with customers, thus destroying your image which groveling may not recover.

I say.. work harder. Work smarter. Get more efficient equipment.

I am 100% solo as of 2002 and I love it. Practically NO headaches

Think long and hard before you go there.

Good luck.