It makes my blood boil. It isn't so bad for me now I employ 12 people and have a proper accounts department but when I first started it would have crippled us. It applies even to a 1 man band who takes on just 1 person. What chance does your average plumber or painter have in keeping up with all the paperwork? It just deters them from taking on extra staff.
- Thread starter Tiggy_dorset
- Start date
It makes my blood boil. It isn't so bad for me now I employ 12 people and have a proper accounts department but when I first started it would have crippled us. It applies even to a 1 man band who takes on just 1 person. What chance does your average plumber or painter have in keeping up with all the paperwork? It just deters them from taking on extra staff.
Kayos
Gone......
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Exactly, only way for me would be if I got a regular contract, say with the local authority or a builder. But what happens if that contract goes? or we end up in a Carrilion situation?
However as a sole trader I cant get those contracts
MoreWellie
Member
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agreed, we had a small software company and when things got tight we thought it would be short term so the directors worked for nothing for quite a few months just to pay the staff and keep the company going. Unfortunately it didn't work like that and the company went in to liquidation. The company didn't owe much money but couldn't keep going
When I started a new company on my own I was amazed to find I had forgotten how much work you could do when you weren't managing other people
Tiggy_dorset
It looks just like a bought one!
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The reasons for my questions are thus:
I am self-employed, but the company I am working for at the moment have offered me a job full/part-time. I don't want to go on he books and am trying to guage a fair rate to offer for part-time work worthwhile for both of us. In conversation during my weld test he mentioned the agency costing him £16-£17/hour for my services. Not sure if he is bluffing or not. From the replies here, it is possible he is paying 'about' that.
I am self-employed, but the company I am working for at the moment have offered me a job full/part-time. I don't want to go on he books and am trying to guage a fair rate to offer for part-time work worthwhile for both of us. In conversation during my weld test he mentioned the agency costing him £16-£17/hour for my services. Not sure if he is bluffing or not. From the replies here, it is possible he is paying 'about' that.
thing is... it makes a massive difference if you hire someone decent vs someone useless, and you can't tell if they're any good till after you've hired them
a few weeks ago had I was short staffed one day anyway and I wasn't in... one guy had bad stomach pain and had to be admitted to hospital
guys left in factory plowed through the work.... one of them saw how much there was to do and quit on the spot
left over guys worked till 1.30am (started 8am)
guy who quit... he was no loss
left over guys who worked to 1.30am are worth their weight in gold - worked 17 and a half hours because the work needed to be done, and because leaving it would have screwed us over the next day - and they did it off their own backs
EDIT:
have to remember it goes both ways - a lot of the time we're going to be waiting for a machine run to finish to leave for the night - I always make sure to let them go as soon as possible and I'll finish off cleaning up myself while waiting for the machine to finish - it's not ages, normally 30min... but it's the attitude/principle that counts
a few weeks ago had I was short staffed one day anyway and I wasn't in... one guy had bad stomach pain and had to be admitted to hospital
guys left in factory plowed through the work.... one of them saw how much there was to do and quit on the spot
left over guys worked till 1.30am (started 8am)
guy who quit... he was no loss
left over guys who worked to 1.30am are worth their weight in gold - worked 17 and a half hours because the work needed to be done, and because leaving it would have screwed us over the next day - and they did it off their own backs
EDIT:
have to remember it goes both ways - a lot of the time we're going to be waiting for a machine run to finish to leave for the night - I always make sure to let them go as soon as possible and I'll finish off cleaning up myself while waiting for the machine to finish - it's not ages, normally 30min... but it's the attitude/principle that counts
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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Could you not go direct through your company and not through an agency?
addjunkie
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Tiggy_dorset
It looks just like a bought one!
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yea, thats the point. We will sit down and have a chat at the end of this month. I don't know what kind of contract he has with the agency, but I would like to make it worthwhile for him to keep me part-time on a self-employed basis, hence my original questions.
rcx132
Philip
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I remember my first business advisor, 15 years ago, telling me to take the salary you're paying and double it. He could be right. I had some fantastic employees that rocketted my company but I had others that caused untold damage, not only did they add nothing to the company but they used up untold resources and time spent trying to train them and then fixing their mistakes.
rcx132
Philip
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There was a number of reasons I closed my business, but sad to say that I had two of these bad employees in a row and that was a big contributor to having to shut down. What's annoying is that they were selected by an agency who charged £10k per employee, whereas the ones that had helped rocket my business in previous years I selected myself based on intuition and recommendations. I now work freelance, I don't want to employ anyone anymore.
Burdekin
Chief Bodger
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Company I use to work for is owned by a single guy who started the business himself. Very eccentric guy, never had anything to do with the day to day running of the business in my time there, but early in he employed two very passionate guys as directors, one finance and one operations and he's looked after them. The company is a bit different, at one time they lost a major contract and the owner kept all the staff on paying for them until they got new work, he knew the value of his staff. Last I checked he was worth over £120m, 3 yachts, house in the French Alps, mooring in Monaco etc. For me that's part of the model for successfully building a company; getting in good folk at the top and sharing the rewards with them and generally being a good employer who folk want to work for.
rcx132
Philip
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I've seen people do similar. In my opinion, business success is a combination of skills, effort, and luck. But that luck factor always plays a part! I've seen average business owners make it and excellent owners fail.
I looked after my good staff very well, they are still loyal to me to this very day even though they work elsewhere now.
