There could be many reasons for not pulling the trigger.
Its a FANTASY, (i fantasize about firing my guys weekly:p) it is not living in reality, I think we all know this.
there is that momentum thing that happens as you are growing a business. Once you have that mind set (that might have taken years to get into) of growing a business, its difficult to change the course you are on even if you really wanted to change. I don’t run a million dollar company and don’t know if I want to. I do know I have plans to be a little bigger next year than this year.
the responsibility one might feel for providing a livelihood for some other folks.
downsizing could be expensive and a whole new set of unknown headaches.
not certain if you could maintain the lifestyle you have worked your self into if everyone was fired. Things always look different in real life than they do on paper.
maybe Chris is comfortable with known chaos and uncertainty that comes along with working with so many people.
liking the game of “how many can I schedule today or this week”.
I think at the end of the day my attitude and mind set is that if you are not growing, you are dying. To fire everyone would be, in-a-way, dying.
I think Charlie is on to something with an evened out salary for the employees (but would the net averaged out pay be appealing in all areas of the country?)
Im still pretty new to the business side of window cleaning.
In my area there are two kinds of window cleaning companies. Companies that run employees and companies that run sub contractors at 55-60% of the job.
With the company that uses a sub contract route and had 400k in revenue, and paid out 60% to small individual one man crews,
thats 160k gross for you. or 40%
With this you pay taxes on your portion, insurance, and advertising. The subs run there own equipment and gas, vehicle.
You dont need workers comp because there not employees.
I feel like one person (the owner) can drum up 400k sales at from home with just a computer and a phone.
after taxes and insurance your still making more than i dunno 90k a year? with managing a smaller crew.
Is my math way off? Like i said im still new to the business side of window cleaning. Im just a one man show right now but liking it.
Steve i think the majority of those reasons, as good as they are, show a fear of the unknown.
The fear to downsize or restructure limits the potential of a person and company. We program ourselves to adopt the “don’t rock the boat” mentality.
I think for most of us the absence of fear (or the ability to set that fear aside) helped us grow our businesses. Now after some years we get to the point that we feel trapped and therefore fearful to make changes.
No, it doesn’t have to grow in size, Bruce. That is a great idea and I think it would probably only happen after the business was big enough to trim away the customers that aren’t making good business sense.
Doesn’t that idea fall under the “grow” attitude? When I trim the bad or ugly parts of my wife’s plants (she has a fit when I do this) they almost always grow back stronger and better looking (and my wife is happy
Jared, you just nailed me on the head! “Fear of the unknown” The only time the business has grown is when I have set aside my fears. I pray, then plan, then pursue those plans as I try to stay focused on what I’d like the business to look like. Things always seem to workout as I go forward. But I’m always battling the fear thing.
I mean the fear comes from something is working enough that the $ are right, if I do this, will the $ fly away and I’m in a pothole I cant get out of = miscalculation or too bold of a risk
which comes back to the cliche phrase: “best calculated risk”
winging a big risk is not what Id call great strategy, but I think we are calculating risks and unknowns throw this off
I used to think I really liked working like this… I thrived on it.
I have changed mentally though… Now I only want to work with an intentionally small team. I never want us to grow above 10 people… and 1 filling cabinet.
Just as I was thinking 1 mil is probably the hardest place to be, right at the point of way more needs, and not where one wants to be, the profit first book pretty much said the same thing, worst place to be
over 3 mil a year would pretty much be the goal
but how to get there? job size is the key. very large commercial, which is going to be very large metro downtown areas
jobs in the tens of thousands at a minimum
winter? it’s going to get into building maintenance etc
otherwise you’re going to need 300 residential jobs a week with 22 guys in the field with 6 billable hours a day or 1 crew of 22 guys and 1 58,000 job working 8+ billable hours a day
see how job size is the key?
if Sears with all it’s resources and decades out there can’t do it residential with carpet care, there’s a reason: too many tiny pieces and ease of entry
