[Rob Shauger]

Well I have been 3 years without any employees after having one who worked for me smash 2 trucks in less than a year. I dread going back to that again, but it is a necessay evil.

Now 1 guy should be able to handle about 5 million sq ft per round. Which is almost where I am now, but I can no longer do all the apps and work on the business and do sales. I am at that teeter tauter level and need to sell a bunch of work this fall and next spring to justify hiring someone.

How do YOU guys go about making the decision to hire that next spray tech?

[Paul]

Maybe I'm out of place because I don't know much about that side of the industry, But YOU expect a new employee to handle as much as the owner right from the start?

Set realistic goals for your new hires, figure training and safety classes. Never set the same goal for them as you would yourself, they don't have a vested interest in YOUR company.

As they progress you can raise the bar, and raise their pay to reflect their progress.

[Rob Shauger]

Paul,

Right now I am doing that production rate and running the biz. All the new employee would be expected to do is the production part. It's very common in this biz to set that expectation.

That equates to only 20 to 25 lawns per day, not unreasonable for even a newbie. Thats right about where I started working for someone else over 10 years ago.

Raising the bar here would be production as well as add on service sales goals, or increasing efficiency and exceeding daily production goals with out compromising service.

[Stonehenge]

You had a guy smash two trucks in a year? I had a guy do that in a couple seconds, smashing one of our trucks into another.

As for your question - are you wanting to know how to go about hiring (the mechanics of it), or when you're financially ready to hire, or is it some other question altogether?

I'd also be cautious about setting expectations - unless there is a history of newbies being able to handle that load, be prepared for disappointment. I do less manual labor now, but even a couple years ago, I did all the designs, sales, paperwork, eqpt repair, etc, and still outworked everyone on the jobsite.

[Rob Shauger]

Well these were both my trucks. The first was when he rear eneded 3 other cars (domino effect) The 2nd he pulled out in front of someone. Luckily there were no injuries or spills.

I am curious on how other look at the financial end of it. Most times in the spray biz you end up having to hire someone before having the full 5 million worth of square footage. For now another 2 million would be good and we could split the work with me doing the 2 million and him doing 4 to 5.

This is standard at least in this marketfor even a newbie to handle 20 to 25 lawns a day. Especially with a ride on, although I would train him the old way first.