Is hiring JUST ONE employee really worth it?

Check out this definition of business: “a person, partnership, or corporation engaged in commerce, manufacturing, or a service; profit-seeking enterprise or concern.”

Its up to nobody but the business owner to decide how large or small his business is. If the business owner decides that he can be more profitable staying a one man operation, or chooses so to keep stress at a minimum, that’s his business. If he wants to hire 50 employees, that’s totally up to him.

Take for instance Phill’s employee that makes 50K. Say he quits tomorrow and Phill has to fly back to TN to take care of the route. Is Phill still a business owner or did he just get demoted to a “job”?

You guys are actually forgetting one very important part of this… FINDING GOOD EMPLOYEES!!

I have one guy right now but have lost approximately $100,000 this year due to lack of good workers here for all the reasons mentioned before
jail bait, constantly on cell phone behind my back, turning up on time for work, complaining about the job, complaining what I make compared to their $12, trust me its near impossible to grow unless your lucky enough to live in the part of the country where people want a job.

There’s a lot more than luck and location involved in recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining employees.

I’m no expert… but that rings true to me!!

obviously there is more to it than location but kansas is bad, even customers here tell me its not the same as living in other parts of the country in terms of the level of work they are use to having done from services. Plus I have been looking for good workers here for years and unless I accept people who want to stand around smoking, done jail time, have dui, are on their cell phones, are slow and stupid, have a brain its impossible, minute you have a few days break from work they are gone elsewhere!

We pay well, have a $500 sign on bonus after 2 years service, 20% Commission on services sold to the home owner while they are with me as a way of them making extra cash. Christmas bonus based on performance, take them out for a steak dinner on some longer days with us while still paying their hourly pay while they sit there and eat a steak and yet nothing, after a few weeks its the same crap over and over. Those of you with employees either do this with friends and family or your standards are much lower because this isn’t normal - I’m from England and work ethics were not this bad.

Jesus if your telling me its like this all over the US then god help the decent ones among us trying to make a living here and I’m sorry but America isn’t the greatest country in the world in my view, maybe back in the 20,30,40,50 even but given the crime in this country and number of gangs and the constant lack of quality workers which in turn has me turning away work, I’m not impressed.

FYI too I mostly do this by myself and on and off have managed to find help for a short while then my wife will occasionally help with bigger jobs although shes the social worker director himself and can only help so much and thats only because we have some big jobs and given the low standards!

I would love to know how Chris on here managers to has a ton of workers. I make almost $300,000 a year imagine what I could do with real help which ****es me off no end… Sorry guys but it annoys the **** out of me this country sometimes.

Sometimes like tonight, I think to myself F this for a game of soldiers and have thought about kicking it in and getting a job at Walmart pushing carts around the car park simply to escape the stress when nearly everyone you find these days can’t be bothered, unless you offer them 50% of your company gross just to turn up each day.

As far as owning a job is concerned. I have always looked at it like this. If you work alone, have 3 houses to complete that day, can you take that day off? Most likely not. If you get sick, hurt or just want to take that day off. You can’t because you risk losing customers. To me, that’s no different than working for someone. You own a job. If you fall off a ladder and break your legs and you have no employees. What happens? A business is not a business until the owner can leave at will and the world won’t come crashing down. If the world is going to come crashing down because you cant show up to a job. That’s a job. No differant then if you stopped showing up to a 9 to 5. You would be fired and your world would come crashing down. If you have employees you can take off as much as you want. That’s a business owner not a job owner.

Unless you’re in Kansas.

Sadly :frowning: correct and FYI god forbid you ask anyone around here to do door hangers for 12c or 15c a door unless the homes are only 2 seconds apart, I find it hard to believe everywhere is like this or else none of us would have help on a regular basis.

WOW… I don’t plan on hiring YET but im putting together a business plan and its gona happen eventually. With rates like that though it’ll be tough, but im sure it’ll happen sooner then later. My goal is to expand, im just laying the foundation for now, preparing myself. Thanks for your imput guys.

this might vary state to state. because I was working for a window company as a “sub” and they had me a set schedule. I was required to be at the shop by 7am mon-fri

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Toto.

or the company you were working for could have been in violation of Federal law, and wrongly classified you as a subcontractor.

I have tracked on spreadsheets for quite awhile

same results as above, quantified, verified and consistent

nice to see someone else got the same result too

[QUOTE=ABM Window Cleaning;105442]Do any of you guys have just one employee? How much does it cost to keep one employee going with tax/workman’s comp and everything?

What ever the gross pay is you can roughly figure that plus 40% to cover payroll taxes and workers com etc.
In other words for every gross dollar per hour you pay your employee you can figure a dollar & forty cents of cost to you.

My experience with trying to get subs (who are basically self employed and have their own insurance) The busy season when I would need and could use their help, they are also, too busy to help me out as well.
If I landed a mid winter huge job then they could work out well as they are hungry for work then.
A 1099 at the end of the year is a lot easier than all the paperwork and quarterly taxes that come with an employee!