Ok so what did you guys do when you started to have a helper? I am wondering how to go about getting employees. What do you have to do? Taxes? Who to register with? When do I have to register them?
My company uses an online company, Sure Payroll, to handle all payroll tasks. Employer tax contributions and employee contributions are automatically deducted and sent to the appropriate agencies. There are probably other online payroll companies out there too and if you don’t mind the bookkeeping Quickbooks also has payroll modules. http://www.lps.surepayroll.com/
As for Workers Comp, start shopping with the insurance companies. It is very risky to not have WC and some commercial clients will require proof.
As for getting employees, I have started asking other business owners for referrals in addition to posting on my page and the local Facebook Classifieds page. Less likely to waste time dealing with flakes with that type of screening criteria.
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My tax accountant has a payroll service that I use. Went under the table in the very beginning but I wanted to provide workers comp and that is not possible when someone is off the books.
We use quickbooks for payroll.
You should check with your state for employer requirments.
Once hired background checks are good to think about.
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I would not bring them in under the table if it were me in my state, but your state may be different. Still, at the federal level if you aren’t paying their taxes as their employer and they meet the requirements per the irs definition of employee they could file a request to have their status reviewed, and that could result in an audit, at least that would be my concern. And, since you can amend returns for a few years they may be able to come after you long after they are gone. If you read the irs definition of an employee odds are you would have an employee and not a sub.
So where I am at is I am a new company. Maybe making 2,000 a month thats a busy month for me. Its a side business. So when I have a helper (my wife or co worker from my full time job) they get 25% of the job. I still take 30% out for taxes on the orig job amount. Paying for a company or a service is crazy to think about. If I could get bigger then I would def. do all of these things. My helpers are getting between $50 a job up to $250 on a very large job.
Find out from you local EDD. They’ll be overzealous to tell you…
Its a quarterly payment here in my state. A percentage of what you pay to employees.
If you do things they way they tell you, be sure to do the math before you take on a headache…I mean an
employee.
You’re paying out way too much money tho.
When you start to sub out or hire…NEVER let them know what the total amount is.
Just let them know either what its going to pay them or give em a set hourly rate.
Its cool at first to pay percentage but look out for the snakes cuz they will try to take your clients. Trust me…not your family of course. I mean people who you sub to and hire.
It may SEEM like that is a huge profit. But its not really profit. You need to invest in your machine your biz…marketing, website, tools, all kinds of things that the money can go…into a savings for floating larger jobs…
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I see employees as a possible hassle for sure. My wife well no she enjoys it. But only can help on the weekends. Example why I enjoy a helper. Did a job inside/out tracks sills screens. The tracks was filthy. Took 6 hours just to get the insides done the house never ended. It would of taken me 12 hrs just to do the insides. I don’t know what to do right now
Are you asking for a way for you to do work illegally?
Work ain’t always easy. Financially, you’re not ready to hire. Big jobs require good time estimating so you can plan accordingly. Always check the windows for paint overspray and check the tracks beforehand. Failing to plan is planning to fail
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Lol no. I tried to google requirements on starting to have employees. Of course you can’t find cut and dry language. The one thing I read was if you pay a employee over 1800$ then you have to file taxes. I worded the title badly as I see. I just want to know if there is a set amount that after you have to report. Then how to go about it. I highly doubt I’ll pay more then 1800$ to an employee this year
Yea I agree with that.
I think the biggest problem for you at this point, is getting up to speed and making “production”. 12 hours by yourself would have to be a HUGE place, or that things were “used and abused” dirty. You either need to get faster and more efficient or learn to charge more for the job.
If the tracks were the issue with dirt, you need to loosen the dirt and vac it out. If it’s the glass that was the issue, what was the issue? Paint?
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@anon82274079 The job was pretty big. I have kept my prices the same. I am def the most expensive in the area. I charge $5 flat for windows under 10’ $10 for second story outside then $5 every inside window both floors. $2 for screens and $5 per track. I did not look at the tracks that was def the issue. Years of not being kept up. Windows as long as I do not have to scrape I am pretty decent speed def no pro yet but way better then a month ago.
Here is what I do so that I don’t keep bumping my head on the same problems more than once:
At the end of the job, or end of the day; I write down what the problem was, and on the other side of the paper possible solutions to the problem. Figure out what the best solution is (usually by running it by my wife) and test it. If it don’t work that well, I move on to the next solution and so on until I get the best answer.
With this one, my solution was to call that level of cleaning something else that stood out from the the normal cleaning that I would normally do…just like that nasty mold sticks out from that open window!
Deep track cleaning is what I chose. (I didn’t coin that term I plagiarized it from this forum)
I charge 7 to 10 dollars EACH track that is like that. Anything over 5 minutes and I’m telling them it needs to be painted and call a painter because its now prepped for him.
Yeah, you did a great job…you ate it on that job tho. My point is that you gotta create a system so that you don’t have to deal with an issue like this one again and if you do you will be paid for your time, expertise and efficiency.
If you DON"T charge accordingly, they will come to expect this and actually devalue it.
For me; its important to write these things down. If I want to duplicate myself so I can concentrate on other things, my clone has to be programmed right? Your solutions go into your operations manual for field technicians or whatever your outfit calls that person.
This way. they will know how to react and what to do should they roll up to the house and they see this. You can’t always go and look at houses all day long so you will end up having to bid on the phone. Sometimes you’ll mess up, sometimes the client will mess up (on purpose, and on accident). You may want to consider wording things in a way where any reasonable person would agree that the price would need to change if they expect that level of service.
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When I quote a house over the phone I always say “based on what you’re telling me…”. Don’t let them get a firm price out of you based on their numbers
Yeah as @thorSG1 said, you just ate it on the price. You should be charging more for those tracks. I am working at one right now that I did the same thing. I goofed up, should have charged more for the tracks.
Mud Dobber and fly poop from hell… But only on the upper story of the house. The ground floor wasn’t bad.
I didn’t crank out the windows BEFORE I started the job. Big MISTAKE on my part, that I usually never make. But I did, so I’m eating it.
The spider nests, mud dobber, and tree crap, can be brushed out with a small, stiff brush. Then I use Simple Green diluted 50/50 on a micro fiber or terry cloth to clean the tracks. I also have a small 1.5 gallon shop vac (with a bag inside) that I vac up the sills inside with.
Open window, brush entire track frame, wash with Simple Green, close the window, and vac inside (vac-ing all windows in the room at one time).
A small pointed ended toothbrush will help you get your rag around the window hardwear, rather than tearing up your fingers.
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Man, that simple green is starting to get expensive! I haven’t tried the new “bio friendly” version yet…have you? Is it just as good as the one that gives goldfish 3 eyeballs? That stuff worked for nearly everything!
No, I haven’t tried any. But yes, SG is fairly expensive. You could buy it in the 55 gallon drum to save a few bucks. 
Edit to add:
Have you tried “Mean Green”?
No never heard of it till just now. Looks like they sell it at wallies world (wal mart) over here. Might go get some tomorrow. Tanks for the tip
