Sole trader considering taking on a trainee - any advice?

[Phirefly]

I'm a sole trader working from home. Business is booming and I'm working all hours to service my existing accounts, and feel continually frustrated that I don't have the time to approach the various other leads I have or focus on growing the business or anything other than getting the day-to-day work done. I have considered increasing my fee but for various reasons this is not possible right now. Besides, theres only so many hours in the week.

I have attempted to outsource work. This has had mixed success. I am a designer and my clients pay me for my distinctive 'handwriting'. I am also very experienced in a particular computer package and am finding it hard to find freelancers to pass work out to who have my level of technical skill. I also have extremely tight turnaround times from brief to deadline, and never let my clients down if it means missing other events, so be it. I've struggled to find anyone who has this work ethic.

I'm halfway through my first year of trading, and I work from my (very small) home so don't feel in a position to take on an employee yet. When I've mentioned this to others, the general consensus seems to be that I should train a student or similar. That I should identify someone locally with potential, just starting out, and set aside some time to give them training and skills that are relevant to my business. I would outsource work to them in a similar way as I have been doing, but look upon it as a form of apprenticeship. There is an excellent art and design school local to me and I am aware they run year-long industrial placement programmes and various other initiatives, but I was reluctant to approach them until I had a firmer idea of what I could offer.

I've been reading the train to gain website, apprenticeships.org and skill-fast but none of it seems relevant to my particular situation. I'd have thought I could maybe apply for funding to assist with this sort of thing? Naturally I'm fully prepared to put my hand in my own pocket as well as ultimately its in the interests of the business.

Does anyone have any advice?
thanks.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

First join the FSB. It will protect you from an employment perspective, help you with contracts etc. Secondly, if you are going with a managed apprenticeship type thing some of these can have requirements for health & safety policies, and even environmental policies. FSB have lots of templates, and are able to help and assist with this.

Kind regards
Sandra

 

[chrisogdenroofing]

I think you would be better off with an apprentice as outsourcing could lead to them taking your contracts.

but this can also happen with an apprentice

 

[Ashley_Price]

I disagree with outsourcing - you just make sure you sign a contract with the person to state they will not try and poach your clients.

However, think about your other areas of work; is the necessary office admin taking up a lot of time? If so you could consider outsourcing that. Just things like:

• Telephone answering when you're busy.
• Dealing with correspondence
• Typing letters
• Sending out company literature

are all things that are necessary, but usually take a large chunk out of your day.

 

[Page]

There may be other ways that you can manage your work load and time that will let you push on a bit before taking the step.

There are loads of books out there and loads of systems that can help you do this all with the pros and cons.

You might be surprised how much time you can save per day.

 

[Phirefly]

Many thanks for the replies so far.

Its a happy problem in a way, I spend very little time doing anything other than design work, and I've 8 years experience doing precisely what I'm doing now, so I'm pretty sure I've found as many shortcuts as possible when it comes to designing a vector graphic for a t-shirt placement. Admin/correspondance is negligible, I send a couple of invoices a week and a few emails here and there. I have an accountant and a cleaner, and my long-suffering other half does as much as he can to share the burden of any tasks outside my business.

I can't see how I could realistically manage my time any more efficiently. I've thought about it in depth and what I believe I really need is to share out the actual design work.

 

[peebles]

Hi,

In my humble experience I have found that you will spend a lot more time on training the apprentice than actually doing the work. They will do the best job they can for you but you will have to alter it and on numerous occassions I have realised that it would have been a damn sight easier to just do it myself.

If I were you I would employ an experienced designer, get them to sign a contract to say they won't take your clients etc - see a solicitor and get something drawn up.

That's what I would do anyway. In the future you can employ a trainee and train them to your standard, it will take time but at least you can focus on them solely if you have another full time designer doing most of the designing work while you build the business and train someone up.

Peebles.

 

[mke]

Phirefly, peebles has got it in one. You simply don't have the time to train somebody. Once you have a reliable employee on board - don't give up because of one or even three bad experiences, you can't build a business on your own, all you can build is a one man practice - between two of you you may be able to do that. More likely, you'll gain so much you'll want a second employee beforehand.

 

[Page]

(Sounds as if you have the time element sorted)

Not all businesses are sensibly upscaleable. But yours maybe.

Sometimes the personal relationship (or hand) is what it is all about.

It might be best to just accept this and enjoy what you have and be in demand in your area.

You can always move prices up a bit and enjoy that side of a more successful business.

Have you written down what another employee would do all week. Is there twice as much work out there. Ten times as much?

 

[Ashley_Price]

If you are definitely looking to employ someone to help with the design work then yes I agree with Peebles and the others above. You must get someone who is experienced. Spend time finding exactly the right person. You need someone you know will do work to the stand you want and who you can get on with.

There's no point in having someone who is great at their work but you are afraid to approach them if the occasional problem crops up. Alternatively, there's no point having someone you really get on with if you're having to alter their work all the time.

You want to get to the point where you can completely trust them, don't have to look over what they doing and you can be open and honest with each other.

 

[Phirefly]

Thanks all, some interesting comments there.

At the moment Im torn between Page's suggestions to just make the most of the current situation or plugging on with finding a decent freelancer. I certainly do not feel in the position to employ someone full time, the work is definitely there, but I think that would be more hassle than its worth, particularly since as I said I do not have premises.

The poaching clients thing is not a big issue as I do not disclose details to any third parties, people seem to accept that.

Since setting up I've been amazed at how hard it is to find freelancers experienced in commercial placement print design in vector software, so its dawning on me why I'm so inundated. If anybody knows anyone who fits the bill please pass on their details to me!!!

 

[Ashley_Price]

Since setting up I've been amazed at how hard it is to find freelancers experienced in commercial placement print design in vector software

Now that sounds specialised.

However, you HAVE to be amazed to know that we advertised for experienced audio typists and most of the responses were along the lines of "I've not done audio typing but I am sure I could." We also stated that the people should have their own digital audio transcription software, we got responses like Will Windows Media Player do?"

 

[Phirefly]

Haha, not just me then.

It is pretty specialised. So far all the freelancers I come across seem to work only in Photoshop which is just not suitable for this particular application. Commercial fashion production is extremely technically restrictive so its tricky to produce a rich, layered design within the enforced limitations, and then you have to fine tune the design itself for each individual customer... you get comments like 'can you make the cat look less cat-like?' etc etc. And all with ridiculous turnaround times.

I really ought to put my prices up!!

 

[Ashley_Price]

I really ought to put my prices up!!

That is a good idea actually. I read a phrase once that said "If your clients aren't complaining about your prices then you're not charging enough."

When you think about it, that makes sense. If you're "that good" you should command a high rate. If some people cannot afford it then they are probably not the sort of client you would want. We've changed our pricing and expenses structures and it means we're doing about a third of the work for the same money!