[mrgreen_perth]

Hi Guys, seems like a simple question and I should probably just get in and do it and play it by ear, but it would be good to get a few pointers from people who have been before, for what did and didn't work for them.

Currently, I am a self employed landscape contractor and do most work on my own. On bigger jobs (or even two person jobs like stonework) I generally get another contractor to come and work with me. I had been studying (Horticulture/Landscape a few days each week) whilst running my business part time over the last nearly two years. Since June, study has stopped and actual business is now 100% focus.

I am contemplating getting an apprentice/trainee who would work 4 days a week and spend one day in Horticulture course in college. Have any of you had experience to advise whether this is a good choice to make? Or whether an already skilled employee (who obviously costs more) is likely to bring better results to my business?

The ultimate goal is to run a contracting business with several teams on different jobs. (At least right now, I think that is the ultimate goal...)

Just curious to know what others used as a benchmark to decide when and how many staff to employ? And if mistakes were made in this area, what were they? And do you have any advice how I could avoid them?

And lastly stepping away from the possible pitfalls, any tips for strategies that REALLY WORKED WELL for you would be greatly appreciated too.

[Bill Schwab]

Mr. Green:

Very simple answer here. When your numbers satisfy you enough to support the wages, and your salary to employ people. Don't make the mistake many do. When you bid work, bid it as though you have an employee(s) that costs you what one would cost you. That way you are charging what you need to be to support employees.

[cutntrim]

As far as experience with employees, you can teach skills but you can't teach work ethic. I hire for attitude first, then experience/skill.

[NeedCoffee]

Two points to consider (worth 0.2)
1. Hiring an employee should be based on capacity constraints and how big you want to grow. If you have to turn down jobs because you don't have the manpower, by all means, hire somebody.
2. If you are at the job-site, you are the expert. So, thus you don't need an experienced worker to help...you call the shots and the helper helps. Now, if you are manning one crew or staying at the office, fork out the bucks for an experienced employee who knows what to do to man the other crew, or fill in for you while you are at your home base.
At the end of the day, it's up to you whether to hire or not. It depends on your particular situation and your growth goals (from the original post, it seems you want to grow).
JMHO...
ET

[mrgreen_perth]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've had a young guy doing his Hort certificate come and do work experience with me. As a result of this I am thinking I will offer him a casual position for a few months to make sure I do indeed have enough ongoing work (and that he continues to be enthusiastic!) and then offer a full time job after that.

As NeedCoffee suggested, I am indeed turning down small jobs regularly as people just are not happy to wait 6-8 weeks for a 1 or 2 day job to be done. As a result of this the only bookings I take tend to be for jobs of one week or longer, which though great, just exacerbates the problem for people with smaller jobs.

I guess job scheduling is another consideration.

Any of you who are mainly landscape installers - Once you started getting bigger jobs do you tend to just stick with them and book everything up months in advance? Or do you create time (or take time away from big jobs) to squeeze the smaller jobs in as well? How do you find that has affected your business?

Thanks again for your responses.

Tony Green