Rough week!

Hey folks, I’m in the need for some advice. Last Fri my office manager moved on to her new career.But the good
news she gave a 2 week notice… But yesterday my one and only helper got his dream job approval(Fish and Game)
I’m very happy for him!! His new positions starts Monday!! (oh Cr*p). then to top it all off my partner told me today
that he’s needed back at home to care for his father(i understand stand that fully) and he whats out…

But now I feel like every body jump ship!!

Advice that I’m looking for…should i just down size work load so i can handle everything myself…

[B][I]I know some of you would say no (HIRE)… but the workers in this area are all from the same gene pool and the pools shallow!!
If you know what i mean!!! [/I][/B]

[B][I][U]WHAT WOULD YOU DO???[/U][/I][/B]

Wow, rough week. I’ll bet by this time next week you’ll have a solid game plan that you are confident with. Couple of questions

How busy is the schedule in July?
How much route work do you have?
What are your goals?
How busy are you Oct-Dec?

I would try to spend a day or two gathering options, maybe take some resumes, and then formulate a plan after the dust has settled just a little bit…

No one is irreplaceable, so just try to relax and give yourself permission to make the decisions soon, but not right this second.

If you don’t think you can find qualified people, then maybe down sizing is the thing to do for awhile. But like the others said, think it over for a few days, maybe you can sub some jobs out if you are really short handed. Good luck.

What are the terms/cost of your partners exit? Was he carrying a substantial part of the workload?

Well we are going over cost of term/cost of him exiting, tomorrow with my attorney and the CPA.

Ya Im going to take a deep breath and figure this out. Thank Michael!!

Thanks Phil, Im going to take a moment out of time and take a deep breath and reconfigure…

You have to get those answers before you can really begin to formulate a plan. You can find a new office manager and helper, even in the shallow gene pools, but I wonder if your partner was running a lot of jobs that you can’t absorb without needing a new tech to run those jobs independently.

Well Dave I hope to have some solid game plan put together soon.
July first 2 weeks are full Res & Route.
Goals= for now is to refocus on the task at hand…
Oct-Dec slow RES. steady route work year round…

try get a girl onboard on the squeegee . i now have 2 and very good results ,good attitude too

Thanks for the advice jonnyald… how long have they been working for you?

Actually only about a month, so its early days- but they are very good timekeepers and v. good at the fine detailing which customers love to see .

Well meet with the Attorney and the CPA today. It went great!!!

[B]Now like it started its all on me…[/B]

Going to take this weekend and restructure the company the way it should be,
and plan the future success of the company.

U[I]MM… RESI or ROUTE WORK THAT’S THE QUESTION…[/I].

Thanks for the advice guys…

That’s awesome news! Congrats!!

Thanks David…

If you need some quick help, try your local temp agency. Most temp agencies will allow you to hire the person, if you get a good one, for little or no fee. I found one employee that way that stayed with me for 5 years.

wow what a sh** week that was!!! Lol

My wife will come help me on bigger window cleaning jobs that I schedule on the weekend. She caught on faster than any of the 20 year old guys who have helped me in the past (they say the prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully developed in men until they reach 25 lol :)). Maybe consider lightweight tools - stecone featherweights. Not to say that all women would prefer that, but the fewer reasons someone has to quit and/or get injured etc, the better.

Make it as easy for your employees to do the job as possible, IMO.

Man, if my wife wasn’t a girly girl I would have her working with me . She hates her job. Its a shame she wouldn’t be able to handle the winter either, So cleaning windows is not in her future. She does do receivables, an all my invoicing for me though an that is a big help.