Interesting to hear what people think the "profits" of this size of business are. Our window cleaning side is roughly the same size as Dean's and if I was making £100K profit from it I'd be a very happy bunny.
As the business grows so does the overheads:
- A workshop/ lockup area becomes essential
- Vehicle running costs increase (regardless of how well they tell you they are driving, it's not their vehicles and they will never care for it like you did!)
- Equipment costs go up for the same reason, it's not their equipment.
- You spend less time on the tools and more time on managing the business, therefore becoming a cost to the business rather than a source of income.
- Hit £72,000 and you have to become VAT registered, which immediatly puts you 20% more expensive than your sole trader down the road who works from home, has minimal overheads and pockets half the money before the tax man sees it
We have 6 excellent workers and I'm not knocking any of them, however we are still not making the margins that people perceive are possible.
It is not a linear scale, if you're making £30K profit now, by taking 4 people on will not increase your profit by £120K.
I'm off to work now to open up for three lads who are working this morning.
