Growing my business

[Rachel Pearson]

Hi me and my husband are the owners of plumbing and heating company. We currently have 1 gas engineer / plumber which is my husband and i run the office. We are looking to expand the company by taking on other tradesmen. We currently use other self employed tradesmen if we need them but would like to expand our company. We advertise on facebook, google, website, flyers and do all the normal advertising. I am looking for abit of advise on the best way to expand and how to start taking on other tradesmen on our books. Really appreciate any advise.

 

[Mr D]

Look at the relationship & power you want over others - will they be self employed or will they be employed?
Or a worker?

Get it wrong and could have a claim later on for holiday pay, pension payments, tax, NI etc.



https://www.gov.uk/employment-status


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44465639 - plumber was classed as self employed by his boss but turns out to be a worker.

 

[Rachel Pearson]

Look at the relationship & power you want over others - will they be self employed or will they be employed?
Or a worker?



Thanks for your reply. We currently use self employed tradesmen but not enough that anything could happen.
We are looking to employ people but just dont know where to start. How do we employ our 1st member of staff ? We need another member of staff to be able to take on more work.

 

[CriticalThinker]

There are certainly lots of elements to consider before taking on employees but, as is often the case with service based industries such as yours, you need to employ others in order to expand the capacity to do the work.

Some factors to consider include the ins and outs of running a payroll scheme, employee benefits, employment contracts, employment policies, job descriptions, 'getting the right person' i.e. interviewing etc. As well as this ask yourself whether the business model works in its new form, is there enough work? is a particular skill needed? Is it more of the same or is the an opportunity to expand offering? What's the business cost of employing someone?

 

[mattk]

How often do you need to subcontract work out to other tradesmen?

My suggest would be to first get yourself in a position were you are having to subcontract work on a continuous basis. This will prove that you can generate enough leads to require two resources.

Only after you've reached that point should you think about employing another person.

The worst scenario you can find yourself in is with two tradesmen and only enough work for one person.

As an aside, I was talking to some friends over the weekend and a couple claimed that that despite "growing" their businesses, one to over a million pounds turnover, they never made as much money personally as they did when it was just them! Food for thought.

 

[BustersDogs]

When I took on staff, initially they helped me on my jobs, then when I felt they were trained enough, I gave them all my work, and spent my time generating more work - which I covered. When I had enough work for another member of staff, I recruited again. I think I did that until I needed 4 people to cover all the work, after that I just controlled flow of new clients through my prices because I didn't want to invest in any more vehicles.

 

[Cube Digital]

Marketing.

One word answers are not great, so I will dive in a bit more. I disliked being a one person business for several reasons - I was that way for many years and it suited my lifestyle.

Then I decided to grow and try and replace myself. It has not been easy, I had to generate enough work to bring on the first person and make sure they were doing it the way I wanted while keeping on getting the work out of the door at the same quality. Bringing on the first person was the most challenging since then every new hire gets easier.

Additionally, I wanted to do it all from current revenues and not borrow, that meant a bit of belt-tightening from time to time.

I started by looking at companies that were just a little bigger than me. How did they get to that size, what do they do right now to keep marketing their company - how can I do this better with fewer resources.

Each time I reach the goal, I pick new and better companies to learn from. I keep upskilling my marketing and business management skills - I know how to do my job well and now I am focused on running a business well.

 

[Dario.c]

When I took on staff, initially they helped me on my jobs, then when I felt they were trained enough, I gave them all my work, and spent my time generating more work - which I covered. When I had enough work for another member of staff, I recruited again. I think I did that until I needed 4 people to cover all the work, after that I just controlled flow of new clients through my prices because I didn't want to invest in any more vehicles.

This is quite a solid process to run and I would stick with this. Before you can actually expand you need to make you everything else of your previous activity has been covered and you won't decrease the level of service delivered

 

[The Byre]

I have a friend who did exactly what you two are doing. Great husband and wife team!

Other trades? Hell, no! Plumbers - yes! He did all his gas, heating, etc. certificates and added courses in things like solar water heaters and off-grid water supplies, so he does all the high paid work and the staff do the fixing of leaking taps, bust pipes and installing radiators. He now had nine vehicles on the road after 20 years in business. He is a plumber through and through and sticks to plumbing!

Marketing? Zero, not even a website! Major contract work, plus people like me who know him and realise that he and his 'boys' may cost more than the competition - but the job is done perfectly and the advice is honest.