[welshwindows]

ok so im going to take the plunge and take on my first member of staff, how much do you guys pay your staff?

[Sean Dyer]

start with minimum wage

is it paye?? have a look at  some job ads in your area... also work out what your costs employing will be, if you cant afford minimum its not time to employ, if you can then work out what you want to earn from them and give them the rest

I reckon somewhere around the £7 ph mark is good give or take 50 p , or a commision if they are really good!!

[welshwindows]

how did you do it? bring them on to your round so go through the roundtwice as fast or get another van and work seperately on 2 rounds?

whats PAYE? ive not looked in to it yet atall. so if i pay 7.50 an hour and expect to get about 3-4 quid from them myself = 11 quid how much money should i be taking in as turnover per hour? im averaging about 18-19quid at the moment,would this give me my 3-4quid an hour after all expenses (tax,NI,insurance, pension)

[Niall McAllister]

for the basics  http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/intro/index.htm  for getting started with employment

[Mr T]

I would go for a lower rate of pay but top it up with a bonus for jobs done per day, and if he  does  a full week.

I had a lad work for me who did not like Mondays, but he called in sick one Monday too many and is now working for himself.

[Niall McAllister]

I agree with lower wage and bonuses. say you employ 30 hr at £6 hr,thats £180 a week. then work in target related bonuses, takes him to £300 if all targets reached. advantage you pay a decent working wage, but come holiday time you only need to find £180 that week, and they have no incentive to go on the sick

[welshwindows]

what type of targets do you use?

[Mr T]

bonus for jobs done per day

That is for jobs done without complaints. If you give someone say £10 per hour they will not work as efficiant for you as they would if you only  gave them £7 per hour plus a bonus for ammount done per day

[Archer]

I also pay my lads for work they pick up.

ie: if 1 of my lads picks a job up , anything from £4.00 - £400.00 they get that  on top of their weekly wage.

[Mr T]

what type of targets do you use?

Because you have someone working for you dont think you will get twice the ammount of work done per day.
I found that I got around 40% more work done .

You need to sort out how many jobs you do per day now, then add how much you will be paying out, plus a profit for yourself for employing him then you know how many jobs you need to do per day

[welshwindows]

ok so im probably going through an average of 25houses a day, so you rekon with another person on board we could go through another 10?

the other problem im having is because im only 17 im worried of staff ending up stealing some of my round. any ideas on safeguarding the work for myself??

[welshwindows]

I also pay my lads for work they pick up.

ie: if 1 of my lads picks a job up , anything from £4.00 - £400.00 they get that  on top of their weekly wage.

how much of the work found do you give the employer??

[Mr T]

the other problem im having is because im only 17 im worried of staff ending up stealing some of my round.

You cant, but if you are working along side them there should be no problems.

how much of the work found do you give the employer??

I would give them the price of 1 clean.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I would go and get some professional advice from the CAB or the local business center.
Many on here have no more experience than you do in what is involved in employing.

[Mr T]

I would go and get some professional advice from the CAB or the local business center.
Many on here have no more experience than you do in what is involved in employing.

Good advice but  some have actually employed staff

[welshwindows]

cheers sunshine cleaning,im currently looking in to that. im hoping if theres any decent grants then i might be able to move to water fed pole system rather than traditional methods.

mr t what happens when its time to take on a second,third and forth member of staff. surely we dont all work together?

has anyone got any ideas on safeguarding work? i work the domestic market,any of you take out contracts with domestic dwellings?

[Mr T]

When you do take on more staff  and need another van you should have built up trust with the person you started out with . Let him run the second van and pay him a bit more for the extra work .
I have never had any contracts with customers if  a domestic customer wants to cancel they will .

[welshwindows]

thank you,thats what ill do,sounds like a good idea. mr t you aint no fool!!!!

[Mr T]

The fist lad I took on I was too good to him. I was soft and treated him like a mate and not someone who worked for me . Dont make that mistake. Make sure you let them know exatcly what there duties are.

 

[welshwindows]

back to the 40% extra work thing, im currently averaging about 150 quid a day so with another person on board we could make another 60 quid = 210

if i pay 6.50 working a 8 hour day thats 52 quid, without taking into consideration the insurance/ NI/ TAX and these bonuses thats 8 quid extra per day. hardly seems worth it.