[Paul Coleman]

A friend of mine has asked to do leaflet drops for me.  I've explained what sort of jobs I want and, more importantly INO, what sort of jobs I DON'T want.
We haven't got around to discussing money yet.
He wants to do commission only.
I would re-imburse his fuel costs.
On top of that, any suggestions about what I should pay him please - especially if you've done something like this yourself.

1)  What to pay if a job is regular?

2)  What to pay for any one offs?

Based on 100 per hour dropped =1 job  (I know, I know it can vary a lot).

I assume that  the 1 job per hour is say £14.

I would be OK to pay £7 for that plus another £7 if I do a second clean - i.e.  half the turnover of the first two cleans.
For a one off I had in mind something like 30% of the total clean price (bearing in mind that I would charge quite a bit more for a one off if the customer said that's what they wanted).

I would appreciate any thoughts on this.
Is my payment system too tight?  Too generous?  About right?

He accepts that sometimes he might earn nothing and other times might do OK.

[Paul Coleman]

Pay him a days wage , maybe £100 , and see what happens , either you will have people ringing you in large numbers , or nothing happens !  You have to speculate to accumalate after all !   The trouble with a lot of people on this forum , is they dont want to invest in advertising !  I spend over £150 a month , but I get a considerable amount of work for that  investment .  Hope this helps friend .

Thanks for the suggestion
However, you seem to have overlooked the bit where I wrote:-

"He wants to do commission only."

I am currently spending about £90 a month on advertising plus a £49 a year deal on the web.  It brings a slow trickle of work but I want to speed things up because I was subcontracting a fair bit of work but that source now wishes to assign that work to their employees.  It's left me with a hole to fill.

[seandyer2003]

i think he will struggle to get much money for commision, it can sometimes be months before leaflets show any return, maybe your better paying by 100, and spot checking that they have gone out?

[Paul Coleman]

i think he will struggle to get much money for commision, it can sometimes be months before leaflets show any return, maybe your better paying by 100, and spot checking that they have gone out?

Maybe.  I have explained the situation to him though and he accepts that sometimes he will make nothing and other times it may take a while.  The last couple of times I've leafletted I have had responses the same day and some responses a week or two later.  I agree though that  sometimes it can take ages - my record was about 2 and a half years.
I don't want to pay by volume delivered as there might be a temptation for him to target small compact houses to bump up the numbers.  I won't need to spot check this guy and he won't have to concern himself about whether I will be honest with him.
I also had in mind another possibility of paying a small amount by volume, another small amount per quote requested, followed by better money if I actually start cleaning at a place.  This would at least reflect some reward for his efforts even if we draw a blank in some areas.  I must stress though that we do have a good friendship that goes back many years and lack of trust is not on the agenda.

[seandyer2003]

i think he will struggle to get much money for commision, it can sometimes be months before leaflets show any return, maybe your better paying by 100, and spot checking that they have gone out?

Maybe.  I have explained the situation to him though and he accepts that sometimes he will make nothing and other times it may take a while.  The last couple of times I've leafletted I have had responses the same day and some responses a week or two later.  I agree though that  sometimes it can take ages - my record was about 2 and a half years.
I don't want to pay by volume delivered as there might be a temptation for him to target small compact houses to bump up the numbers.  I won't need to spot check this guy and he won't have to concern himself about whether I will be honest with him.
I also had in mind another possibility of paying a small amount by volume, another small amount per quote requested, followed by better money if I actually start cleaning at a place.  This would at least reflect some reward for his efforts even if we draw a blank in some areas.  I must stress though that we do have a good friendship that goes back many years and lack of trust is not on the agenda.

Fair enough, i thought you were doing commission so that he only gets paid for what has obviously been delivered, but thats good you can trust him, how about an hourly rate and commission, then the hourly rate doesnt have to be huge because it will be subsidised by commission?

[ALAN HAYNES]

i do the same sort of thing and pay them the price of the house so if its a ten pound house they get ten quid

[davids3511]

Hi Shiner

The way I do it is to pay £5.00 per hour worked and 25% of any work he gets me (first clean only). If he gets a two monthly he gets 12.5%. If it is a one off it is still 25%. It normally works out that he is getting between £10 and £15.00 per hour worked.

I know you said commission only so this system will probably not suit you.

[Paul Coleman]

Some good suggestions coming through.  It seems that the more money is guaranteed for the canvasser, the lower the commission which is what I would expect.  It seems to work on a sliding scale.  I also like the suggestion of printing them with a reference number on there (I would use his initials).  I print them myself so it's easy for me to adapt it.
I just want to re-iterate that there is no problem of trust between us.  I have every faith that even if i paid totally by the hour, he would be straight with me.  However, I don't want to end up paying too much out in case the return rate is lower than usual with leaflets.
I may well assemble a few possible packages and ask him to choose one (£5 an hour will not be one of them though    ).
Maybe something like £1 per 100 PLUS £1 per quote PLUS 50% of 1st clean PLUS 50% of second clean.

OR  50% of 1st clean PLUS 75% of second clean (no quote or volume money).

There are a number of permutations. I want to earn OK from this and I want him to earn OK too.  If after a few weeks he wasn't getting enough return, we could always tweak the arrangement anyway.  If it was no good for him, I would probably pay him some money for his efforts anyway as I wouldn't want a friend to be out of pocket.