[Danny Guest]

276 I can do on my own. 2 men thats shocking. 

my thoughts exactly been decent priced work today as well. came back at 5,30pm and said weve not managed to clean nursing home we do for £70 and a one off clean for letting agency

these same two lads i allowed one to come in late yesterday as he had council gas fitters round so had to move furniture and fittings and the other let have afternoon off to take mum for medical yet they couldnt be arsed to stay out to get work done an hour longer

Show them who the boss is. They don't respect you

[wfp master]

only way to stop them doing jobs on the side in your time is go with them.

[G Griffin]

276 I can do on my own. 2 men thats shocking. 

my thoughts exactly been decent priced work today as well. came back at 5,30pm and said weve not managed to clean nursing home we do for £70 and a one off clean for letting agency

these same two lads i allowed one to come in late yesterday as he had council gas fitters round so had to move furniture and fittings and the other let have afternoon off to take mum for medical yet they couldnt be arsed to stay out to get work done an hour longer

Show them who the boss is. They don't respect you

Is that what the "special box" is for? 

[C o z y]

that figure will be much lower once they get into those Groupon jobs I suspect.

 

[Deangsi]

I'm confused hear your 2 man team did 270 id say that was pretty good when I work as a two man team all day we rarely hit£300 my prices are obviously not the best and driving maybe that's all I can think. Mite put some prices up. IV also noticed that on my own I can do 3 quarters of what I do with a second person on my own

[steeley]

276 I can do on my own. 2 men thats shocking. 

my thoughts exactly been decent priced work today as well. came back at 5,30pm and said weve not managed to clean nursing home we do for £70 and a one off clean for letting agency

these same two lads i allowed one to come in late yesterday as he had council gas fitters round so had to move furniture and fittings and the other let have afternoon off to take mum for medical yet they couldnt be arsed to stay out to get work done an hour longer

WOULD YOU OF WANTED TO STAY AN HOUR LONGER AFTER WORKING IN THIS WEATHER?? PERHAPS GO WITH THEM ON THE ROUNDS OR POP UP RANDOMLY AT A JOB? WHEN WEATHER IS BAD WORK RATE SLOWS UP FACT, WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT THEY WILL FEEL MORE INCLINED TO STAY THAT EXTRA HOUR. Do they get a bonus for meeting days targets? Find out what motivates them if its money offer them a bonus you could of easily given them an extra £10 each if they got the nursing home done because you would still be earning another £50.

[richywilts]

its just nowhere neat whatthey should have got done ive looked over there daily log

two fronts onlys
two shop fronts inside and out
a flat with 4 windows
a gutter clear
a pub inside and out
then 14 normal size 3-4 bedroomed houses

they then missed off a nice easy nursing home and a one off clean of three bed semi for 30 quid

total work should have been £399

[steeley]

how much do you pay your cleaners richy?

[richywilts]

£7 per hour at minute but if i found top notch employees id defo pay more

just seems to be one thing after another its defo my downfall dealing with employees can never get the right balance

this lot dont seem to want longer hours to earn more even tho by mid way thru the month there skint, they dont wana work weekend so im buggered ha

weeks like this i consider going bk to working on my own and picking the best bunch of customers i have with the nice commercial and selling the rest

[steeley]

Think positive you earnt over £100 for yourself and you didnt have to freeze!

Also it is a minefield trying to get someone to do things the way you want, you will never find someone that will work as hard as you would or care as much as you do as its your company! Maybe tell them any work not completed gets added to the next morning this way if they dont do weekends their thursdays and fridays are gonna get packed and they will soon try and complete a days work on time, or retrain them go out with them see if you can speed them up in technique etc ....

[roundbuilder]

I dont understand the problem. Sounds like they did a decent days work,
£7 an hour isnt going to make them jump hurdles for you. you made over £100 profit for doing sweet fa. Was a verey cold day. I did £210 and my other van only did £260 but im still happy for a cold day like today. Maybe you should go out aswell richy. You have done a cracking job building up your business, the trick now is to tweek everything so it runs like clockwork. You need to gain your employees respect and to gain that you need to trust them. Offer insentives as we all know money talks. Offer them first clean of any new work to stop them doing it thereselfs.
Im not trying to tell you how to cook beans on toast but it realy is your fault if your not happy as you are the 1 in control managing your business. Take a step back and look at what you have and build on how you can make it better. It worked for me.
Im sure you will be back on top soon mate. All the best.

[richywilts]

just gone over the vehicle tracking must have just been one of them days there had been a fair bit of travelling maybe somedays i just expect a bit too much just a bit peed off they never bothered with the nursing home when i let them have time off yesterday

[Smudger]

I would start with looking at the manager of the company Richy - the head honcho
Does this person inspire the staff ? do they lead by example ? are they a go-getter, problem solver who
gets stuck into the work load ?  gives encouragement and support to the staff ?

or are they a slacker, who rarely lifts a finger constantly berating and belittling staff ?

In answer to your OT -  it's not the number of jobs scheduled but the value thats important
if your hourly rate for a 2 man team is £50 ph  and a working day is 6 hrs then £300 of work should have been completed

IF NOT-

Have you accounted for travel to and from and factored this into your hourly rate ?
Is your pricing right to hit this target rate ? ( go good quoting £20 for gutters if your there an hour inc. travel to and from job )
If the staff cant hit this rate are they trained correctly ? can you hit this rate

Darran

[Archer]

Hi Richy,

The first thing I do when I take on new staff is be perfectly straight with them regarding what I expect from them whilst working for me.

It takes a long time to build a solid window cleaning business, but only takes a short time to lose it.

As a boss you have to be fair, and your hourly rate of pay sounds ok to me, do you pay bonus at all ?

I would never pay my lads personally for hitting targets, as I think work would be rushed, and all I say to my lads is just take your time, do a good job, and take NO risks, and that way I know the work will be completed correctly (fingers crossed).

When I can see this happening, I do that bit more for my lads and look after them and give them a bit more to keep them happy working for me.

I make sure the equipment they use is quality, so they are happier whilst working.

The first time you notice or believe they are taking advantage of your better nature, YOU MUST SORT IT IMMEDIATLY.

Regarding your question as to how many jobs should be completed by your lads, only YOU will know.

I am not bothered how many jobs anyone else can do, I am only interested in what I believe is a fair days work for my lads, as everybodys targets are different.

You have to toughen up, just get a couple of lads that are good (difficult I know), manage them correctly, then when you need more staff split them up and let them be in charge of their team with the new lad, they will appreciate you for giving them the responsibilities.


Don't forget, don't expect too much, make sure you price correctly, and don't make them feel rushed, as that's when accidents are more prone to happening, and you do not want that.

Any advice or someone to try and help you, give me a call and your welcome to come for a coffee.

[DG Cleaning]

I don't employ but £7 per hour doesn't seem like much.
If you paid them £9 per hour or 7 plus bonus would that get a better result?

[richywilts]

I don't employ but £7 per hour doesn't seem like much.
If you paid them £9 per hour or 7 plus bonus would that get a better result?

the thing is tho you cant pay more coz its not always guaranteed work you dont know if your going to be paid on the work or when

like i said in previous post if i had 2-3 lads that were happy with a very good day rate and when above n beyond whats required id pay a decent wage but until all my lads know how to get in on time and maybe stay a bit longer each day to help me out then im not gonna bend over backwards offering them great wages until i see the effort of one or two individuals my wages are prettyfair, i pay for jobs they bring in at 5er a go, im flexible i just want a bit more effort from them all to complete weeks targets at minute its not getting done and none are willing to work weekend to catch up

[richywilts]

Hi Richy,

The first thing I do when I take on new staff is be perfectly straight with them regarding what I expect from them whilst working for me.

It takes a long time to build a solid window cleaning business, but only takes a short time to lose it.

As a boss you have to be fair, and your hourly rate of pay sounds ok to me, do you pay bonus at all ?

I would never pay my lads personally for hitting targets, as I think work would be rushed, and all I say to my lads is just take your time, do a good job, and take NO risks, and that way I know the work will be completed correctly (fingers crossed).

When I can see this happening, I do that bit more for my lads and look after them and give them a bit more to keep them happy working for me.

I make sure the equipment they use is quality, so they are happier whilst working.

The first time you notice or believe they are taking advantage of your better nature, YOU MUST SORT IT IMMEDIATLY.

Regarding your question as to how many jobs should be completed by your lads, only YOU will know.

I am not bothered how many jobs anyone else can do, I am only interested in what I believe is a fair days work for my lads, as everybodys targets are different.

You have to toughen up, just get a couple of lads that are good (difficult I know), manage them correctly, then when you need more staff split them up and let them be in charge of their team with the new lad, they will appreciate you for giving them the responsibilities.


Don't forget, don't expect too much, make sure you price correctly, and don't make them feel rushed, as that's when accidents are more prone to happening, and you do not want that.

Any advice or someone to try and help you, give me a call and your welcome to come for a coffee.

cheers chris be good to catch up again let me know when ya working up warrington ways only down the road fromt here down m56

[gr cleaning solutions]

Hi richy

From what I have read in this post and other you sound like you have a good business but if you don't act now your staff will run your business into the ground have you thought of doing a management course

[mgba_78]

We dont look at just houses done its about £££ more importantly.
If there isnt a lot of driving 2 men should be doing £350 per day MINIMUM IMO!

As trad we had a lad out in a van for us who was doing £200-£250 per day.
It doesnt add up you lads are obv just working slow, they need a boost of some kind (Or a kick up the.....)

May you need ££ incentive's  for them to get work done?? Even an extra £10 per day each if the hit target get them a further £200 per month each. But if they can do an extra £60 per day worth of work to start off with your gonna get £40 per day extra :-)  Happy days!

Or why dont you go out with one of them and show them how you want it done, so theres the proof for them, IT CAN BE DONE!

But deffo IMO them figures are too low for a 2 man WFP days turnover.

[SB Cleaning]

276 I can do on my own. 2 men thats shocking. 

my thoughts exactly been decent priced work today as well. came back at 5,30pm and said weve not managed to clean nursing home we do for £70 and a one off clean for letting agency

these same two lads i allowed one to come in late yesterday as he had council gas fitters round so had to move furniture and fittings and the other let have afternoon off to take mum for medical yet they couldnt be arsed to stay out to get work done an hour longer

Show them who the boss is. They don't respect you

Exactly!!

The amount of posts I have read with moaning about staff....if ya not happy get rid and get some eastern Europeans on board they want to work!!!!