Personally I pay $15 per hour, based on the length of time I estimated the job to take using 2 people, so obviously if its a larger home 6 hours they both make $90 or a smaller home where I need one of them on it, same $15. I use 2 guys who sub contract for me but technically are working for the company as employees but cuts out a lot of costs too this way.
I pay 20% commission on top of thier hourly for any jobs they bring in from knocking on doors, Gutter Cleaning (I charge $75 per half hour), Windows ($400-900 average job), gutter whitening ($3 a foot), gutterstuff installation ($6.75 a foot) so doing it this way they make good money when working for me but equally when they are not and are out bringing work in they also stand to make excellent commission plus their hourly for doing the job too.
I have happy workers but believe strongly in rewarding them for doing a good job as I also pay them $250 xmas bonus, free drinks on the job plus a truck.
Hourly is great but pay well and you get what you put into it.
With all you guys paying commision wages, do you run into many problems with guys trying to become your competition?
I was under the impression that I don’t want my guys knowing what the job cost is, therefore they can’t go right back and underbid it…whats your opinions? I respect them all greatly.
I had the same thought…I dont like my workers knowing what I make in a day… on a good day, its alot of $ and they may wonder- why work for someone when I could start my own wc co?
I pay hourly/salary…if they hussle in a day and do the eight hours of work in 6, they get eight still…Just like comission but they never know how much you make off each job. They also get to steady income because every week 40hours of work needs to be completed and they may finish it altogether in 30, they get 40.
Sharen,
The way I have things set up, my guys know what im making on each job. They would be crazy to try to break out on their own. I have a “team atmosphere” and we all stick together for the most part. I have had a few ex employees try to make it on their own and fall flat on their faces. Its not that easy. Your average worker will typically just want to do the work, get a check and go home. I tell my guys what a pain in the rear taxes are, all the headaches of doing payroll and matching taxes. handling customers issues and all the late hoiurs- I dont try to sugar coat anything. One thing I wont push them to do is the selling part. If you teach them to sell, they could go on their own. Ive seen this happen to a good friend of mine.
I agree with everything you said except the not teaching them to sell. I would expect that everyone of my employees could sell a window cleaning job after a period of time. If you teach them to sell, yes, they Could go out on their own or they could wind up selling more jobs for you. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!!!
Yeah Im the same with regards to teaching them to estimate why have them sat on their ass when there isn’t a job when they can go out door to door and earn some extra commission from the job. Plus here in Kansas its hard enough to find people willing to work let alone worry about them breaking out on their own!
Side note here… I own a publishing magazine too and pay sales people $20% for advertising they bring in, approximately $$80 to $400 an Ad commission for them, along with a nice BMW company car, paid 7 day vacation and $1,000 christmas bonus and its impossible to find people to work here regardless of the outcry of no jobs, no jobs my ass i can’t find good people to work here.
Bidding and selling jobs are two different things to me. If I have a crew in a certain area and I have a quote request, I will have them do the quote. They know how to quote because they have to know what the going rate is for everthing that we do. If a customer adds a chandelier to their cleaning when they are there, they have to know what to charge.
I was referring to the actual face to face thing. Going door to door (which I personally wont do), or going storefront to storefront. Once they get over the fear of face to face contact, then a light may go on up there. Especially if they are good at selling. Its a double edge sword.
