how do I get a tech not a chimp

[juniorc82]

I have been pretty busy lately. It seems like one week I will have 40 - 50 hours to give a helper but the next week I may only have 10- 15. this has made it tough to find decent help because everyone who is willing to work an off the wall schedule isnt the best help. I have had some talented people come to work but its hard to keep them without having consistant hours to give. I am thinking of going balls out on marketing to try and fill the schedule up a little more so I have the hours to give. I know I am tired of a hose dragger and am looking for a tech. I have had a 21 year old kid working off and on for me for a little over a year who has zero potential to be anything more than what he is, he just seems to be available when I need grunt work. But anyway how do I solve this problem?

 

[The Great Oz]

Hire a guy to work full time and YOU take the overflow work.
Spend your open time building your business until you have to hire another tech.
Repeat.

 

[handdi]

got to offer someone full time hours to get anyone decent

 

[billyeadon]

Hire a guy to work full time and YOU take the overflow work.
Spend your open time building your business until you have to hire another tech.
Repeat.

Bryan has the best answer. Do you have a college in the area? If so you may have students who are looking for work that can fit around their class schedule. The ones to go after are the ones who may be back for additional degrees as they tend to be a bit more mature and dependable.

Chuck violand likes to talk about a med student that he hired in the early days of his business. 20 years later he is seeing a doctor and for some reason the name sounded familiar. He asked the nurse if the doctor had ever cleaned carpet and the nurse said yes while he was in school. At this point Chuck was hoping that the doc had left on good terms.

If you are truly serious about this you can make it happen.

 

[Hoody]

Hire a guy to work full time and YOU take the overflow work.
Spend your open time building your business until you have to hire another tech.
Repeat.

+1

 

[Bob Savage]

What are you paying?

Do you offer benefits of any kind?

 

[machinejjh]

Hire a guy to work full time and YOU take the overflow work.
Spend your open time building your business until you have to hire another tech.
Repeat.

This is good advice.

 

[ACE]

What are you paying?

Do you offer benefits of any kind?

Are you looking for work Bob?

Hire a guy to work full time and YOU take the overflow work.
Spend your open time building your business until you have to hire another tech.
Repeat.

That's good advice if you don't need to make money every month to pay bills. The fact is, you don't have volume to retain a full time tech. I would try to find better part time / seasonal help for now. If you can get the gross billing in the $150-200K range then you can shop for your right hand man.

 

[Bob Savage]

shiteatinggrin Good one Ace!

No. I've got enough to keep me busy.

 

[boazcan]

A short term answer - If you have any "friends" in the business in your area, try to work something out to share the help. I have done this off/on for the past few years. Someone whose guys can/want to work when they are working their primary job.

I have a guy now that I use/share with another company who does mainly VCT work at night/weekends. I can work him during the day and some nights/weekends when he is not booked already. It sounds confusing, but it has worked out really well. Plus the tech can get full time+ wages working in two places.

Long term answer - What the other Bryan said.

 

[idreadnought]

yes, very good advice from brian. Balls to the wall marketing? Like what? The best type is the kind that you do networking. Visit carpet stores, chamber of commerce, knock on commercial doors, get out and about in the community. You will get work this way but it takes time. Time and energy you don't have if you scrubbing carpet all day.

 

[billyeadon]

We need to model our companies after larger companies in other industries that seem "to get it" when it comes to employees. I am not talking about Google and their 24 hour gourmet cafeterias but companies like The Container Store. Retail is definitela high turnover industry so how does TCS do it.

http://www.brandautopsy.com/2012/02...XlE+(Brand+Autopsy)&utm_content=Google+Reader

 

[Vivers]

Find employees at church, craiglist, we even got a great tech from a client who swore her son would be the best employee I ever had. He was but his body couldn't handle the work. His back specifically.
We meet and do a thorough but friendly interview to get to know the person.

We also do full background checks as well. I believe we pay more then most every other company around as well. We take really good care of our guys and they do us as well.
They tend to make $800-$1200 a week

 

[truckmount girl]

Full time hours and a living wage.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Here is the simple answer. You don't mind paying someone when things are good, but don't want to when things slow down. You are paying hourly and only paying the guy when he works. You need to offer a guaranteed weekly salary. It doesn't have to be much maybe 300 dollars but put him on commission pay so he can work harder and make more. Set aside some money a couple thousand and use it when times are slower. That is how you find and keep a decent tech. Give them incentive to work harder to make more.

 

[GeneMiller]

Daniel that's pretty good considering you were the one that couldn't figure out how it was worth having a helper. i always guarantee a minimum . if i take vacation they still get paid. if things get slow they still get paid. salary plus bonus after the first year. i am currently hiring again and i thought i hit the lottery with the last guy. smart and customers loved him. he just quit showing up. i'm not sure what happened he never answers my calls or texts . i called a guy tonight and after a lengthy conversation he said he only applied because he had to. 5 each week for his unemployment. he's got him some obama care.

gene

 

[Bucey]

Daniel that's pretty good considering you were the one that couldn't figure out how it was worth having a helper. i always guarantee a minimum . if i take vacation they still get paid. if things get slow they still get paid. salary plus bonus after the first year. i am currently hiring again and i thought i hit the lottery with the last guy. smart and customers loved him. he just quit showing up. i'm not sure what happened he never answers my calls or texts . i called a guy tonight and after a lengthy conversation he said he only applied because he had to. 5 each week for his unemployment. he's got him some obama care.

gene

This is where an employer should be able to report a job offer to the employment sec! We desperately need some accountability with the Unemployment Industry! hey Marty, blow me

 

[GeneMiller]

they need a form that the interviewer has to sign. it should include a box that says if a job was offered , yes or no. the form has to be left with the interviewer to be mailed in. problem solved. it's to simple so the government would never do it. they could be labeled just like a netflix envelope and be read by a computer . it would create a few jobs but pay for itself by forcing people to really look for work.

gene