Stoots

  • Posts: 6037
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #20 on: February 25, 2022, 10:16:33 am »
It’s not just about how much they generate is it though. How they treat the vehicles and equipment, how they interact with clients, follow rams, punctuality, attitoood etc.

Doing all of the above should be a minimum requirement of them keeping the job.

It's all about how much they generate, everything is about the numbers. Who wants a great employee that makes no profit. Sounds like a burden.

NWH

  • Posts: 16952
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2022, 12:22:01 pm »
I had one like this years ago he was a lovely bloke got on with him fairly reliable etc,wanted something for doing very little Monday was his favourite day to have off after a weekend of about 10 hours sleep lol.
At the end of the day they’ve gotta earn.

NWH

  • Posts: 16952
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2022, 01:02:37 pm »
Give respect to people I agree there’s plenty on here that have staff but you can’t suffer fools too much I hear gardeners talking about their boss,🤣🤣 blimey if I heard the things I’ve heard said about me and I was paying their wages they’d be gone the next day and if they wanted to take me to court good on em.
NPower are the same all they do is moan about their line manger or boss,they take no risks with bank loans  leasing agreements etc if they don’t earn you enough money get rid of em.

NWH

  • Posts: 16952
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2022, 01:03:59 pm »
I’m not talking about NPower with the loans and debts I’m taking about our little job.

Ascjim

  • Posts: 206
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2022, 01:18:56 pm »
Put prices up and £300 min per man per day.

simon w

  • Posts: 1580
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #25 on: February 25, 2022, 02:20:39 pm »
Put prices up and £300 min per man per day.

And register to become VAT registered then put your prices up again to pay your increased accountants fees .

Ggh

  • Posts: 1699
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #26 on: February 25, 2022, 06:21:34 pm »
It’s not just about how much they generate is it though. How they treat the vehicles and equipment, how they interact with clients, follow rams, punctuality, attitoood etc.

Doing all of the above should be a minimum requirement of them keeping the job.

It's all about how much they generate, everything is about the numbers. Who wants a great employee that makes no profit. Sounds like a burden.

There are degrees of the above points I mentioned.

It’s not just about the moolah. Having a member of staff that can think ahead, resolve an issue, quote correctly etc, that’s more valuable than a robot that’s dull and hitting the numbers.
Also, importantly, they have to fit in with the other employees.
Z21 cherry picker and operator for hire
From £350/day
07813474290

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #27 on: February 25, 2022, 06:30:47 pm »
We noticed the same - you can easily fall back towards minimum wage - we gave everyone 11% rise from March 1 - to keep the gap - this unfortunately is what’s required

If your increasing your prices regularly you should still maintain that 33% wage cost

Darran

We have a price increase planned for April so hopefully this will make a difference!  Will be good to bring the cost down closer to 30% again hopefully.

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #28 on: February 25, 2022, 06:31:19 pm »
Is that £250 a day before VAT?

Not VAT Registered and dont plan to be for personal reasons.

So just £250 total.

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #29 on: February 25, 2022, 06:33:45 pm »
What are the reasons for your turnover being stagnant? Covid, losing work, not increasing prices, staff slacking off?    When you say £250 per man is that 1 man per van? Because there’s a big difference 2 men in one van bringing in £500 compared to two vans bringing in a total of £500.
I would expect an employee to be able to do an absolute minimum of £50 per hour, if this isn’t being achieved is it down to poor work rate, poor efficiency or could it be poorly priced work?
The truth is there are so many variables on how the figures might not be working for you, it’s down to you to identify where things aren’t right and then to implement a course of action to put it right.


Not increasing prices (will be april 2022) and staff slacking off ever so slightly i would say.  £250 per van per man.  I have always aimed for £40 per hour per man, but times are changing and this number is outdated.  Ill now start aiming towards closer to £50 per hour i think.  Our work is priced well, but its not always close together so poor efficiency in that regard for sure.

Ggh

  • Posts: 1699
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #30 on: February 25, 2022, 06:37:33 pm »
How can you not be VAT registered?
Z21 cherry picker and operator for hire
From £350/day
07813474290

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #31 on: February 25, 2022, 06:39:39 pm »
As you know i dont currently employ but have at various points.

The minimum wage has shot up it was only around 8 quid an hour in 2018/2019! back then 250 a day was a good target (30/35% staff costs to turnover ratio)

250 in a day isnt a lot of work anymore, even where i am charging around 12 quid an average house i can rattle that off by 1pm most days. I know employees will never work that hard but i think £300 should be an achievable target by someone working an 8 hour day without killing themselves.

They need to be doing 300 a day mate with the amount they are costing you.

I think you are right.  going forwards i need to be moving towards £300 a day, £250 just isnt enough now with all the cost increases.  Ill have a chat with my worker and try and sort this out before april

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #32 on: February 25, 2022, 06:44:21 pm »
How can you not be VAT registered?

Because i'm turning over less than the minimum amount legally required to be VAT Registered.

For personal reasons i'm not prepared to expand the business.  I just want to stay below threshold and tick over as we have been doing and make a semi decent profit.

Year on year it will get harder and harder to do that if costs keep rising, but the VAT Threshold stays frozen.  It was going up several thousand each year, but its been frozen for 3 years which is not ideal.


SB Cleaning

  • Posts: 4231
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #33 on: February 25, 2022, 06:54:09 pm »
It sounds like the OP isn't turning over nearly enough to make it worth employing to me.

Mark Dee

  • Posts: 58
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #34 on: February 25, 2022, 06:58:18 pm »
Is that £250 a day before VAT?

Not VAT Registered and dont plan to be for personal reasons.

So just £250 total.

Presuming you work 48 weeks per year and 5 days per week you can take £350 per day and still be under the VAT threshold, You need to take that daily sales total in the least amount of time as you possibly can. otherwise inflation and the need to cover increasing overhead will force you into being compulsory registered. Just scraping over the VAT threshold will probably push you into a trading loss, As already mentioned you need a much better understanding of your numbers.

Do you still work on the windows too or are you office based?

Smudger

  • Posts: 13225
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #35 on: February 25, 2022, 07:17:59 pm »
So how many hours a day do they work.?

Darran
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

www.oddbodscleaning.co.uk

Splash & dash

  • Posts: 4364
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #36 on: February 25, 2022, 07:20:49 pm »
Without being rude if that’s all you are earning why employ ? One man should ba able to do that amount on his own without any problems provided prices are  ok

Ascjim

  • Posts: 206
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #37 on: February 25, 2022, 07:56:41 pm »
Around 5 years ago before I sold all our window work, I had one guy doing £350.00 + VAT and then a 2 man van softwashing all day.

It can be done and it could be down to your prices?

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #38 on: February 25, 2022, 09:38:44 pm »
It sounds like the OP isn't turning over nearly enough to make it worth employing to me.

Everything is setup in my business and ready to go.  For the actual admin work that i do, the profit i am left with each year is very good.  Context is everything though.  I have some serious health problems that have developed in the last 2 years meaning at present there is 0 chance of me probably ever doing physical work again.  Therefore i do rely on this income which is only possibly from having employees doing the cleaning.

jo5hm4n

  • Posts: 943
Re: Margins when Paying Staff - Something isnt right....
« Reply #39 on: February 25, 2022, 09:42:59 pm »
Is that £250 a day before VAT?

Not VAT Registered and dont plan to be for personal reasons.

So just £250 total.

Presuming you work 48 weeks per year and 5 days per week you can take £350 per day and still be under the VAT threshold, You need to take that daily sales total in the least amount of time as you possibly can. otherwise inflation and the need to cover increasing overhead will force you into being compulsory registered. Just scraping over the VAT threshold will probably push you into a trading loss, As already mentioned you need a much better understanding of your numbers.

Do you still work on the windows too or are you office based?

It was not possible to hit the 85k pa figure with just 1 van, so i got another van 3 years ago which i was working in part time to top up the turnover to hit the figure.  In the last 2 years though i developed some serious health problems meaning at present there is 0 chance of me doing physical work ever again.  So i now have a part time semi retired worker in the 2nd van purely to top up the income to hit the figure. 

Yes you are right and i am aware of my numbers.  If the threshold stays the same, year on year rising costs will bring my profit margins down to a point where i will be forced to make difficult decisions.