[Sean Dyer]

just to do the sums on £300 , 10% vat takes it down to £270, less 52% ie £156, this gives £114 gross. Defray £20 diesel, and running costs of £10, and we hit £84 net.

From the £84 net are admin, van and equipment etc.It's not a huge return.Anyone disagree with my sums?

£20 on diesel a day ??

what they driving a monster truck lol

however your running costs will be expensive !! so i dont think your figures are far off

but although your "only " making £84 if you multiply this by the days in the year they work and by a number of employees - plus you can work too, that £84 is for relatively little work so its not bad when you look at it like that!

[dai]

I used to pay a guy 35% of whatever we made. 35% each and 30% for expenses seems fair enough to me.
I never once took double what I could do on my own.

[Gleaming windows]

if i send 2 men out for the day they get £100.00 each if they hit £500.00 which they usually do. what ever they turn over i simply take that number and divide by 5 to get they amount for the day, so if its £400.00 divide by 5 = £80.00 or if its £600.00 = 120.00 and so on

Could you just clarify those figures please.

If two of your guys go out and turn out work that brings in £400 then they get £80 each and you get £240?

[CBCS]

I've thought about this for a while now, I thought about 20% to start with (say a months trial) then keep upping their wage when they are doing better, more work etc, say every 3 months.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I supose I should have age assessed this question as you could get away with paying a 17 year old less than an established shiner who needs the odd day.

[Helen]

Good approach Ian.It's better than my way, but i'm feeling my way in this.I am tempted to make one of them senior.Ie. one of them is in charge and gets a higher wage, and the other is his helper.Then if the helper shows signs of responsibility give him his own van.
Just my thoughts.

This is a good idea, but if you plan to expand (it sounds like it!)Why not give the first 2 equal responsibilty, therefore making them team leaders straight away.Then when you split them into 2 vans, you already have a structure in place. You then take on "helpers" to assist those 2 and so on.

[Ian Rochester]

I have two people who are classed as supervisors and dictate what gets done by the others etc, they are also the ones who collect the money in and price up new work.  They are on a slightly higher rate for this.

However, we are also looking to changing our whole system and paying everyone a basic wage each week, probably around 85%-90% of what they are averaging now, then at the end of every period, either 4, 8 or 12 weeks (yet to be decided) we pay them a bonus based on that periods work. 

The main advantage to this is that if we have a wet week, like recently, then they will still get a regular wage coming in and at the end of the period they should also have a decent bonus as well.