Help Hiring First Employee

CaPowell

CaPowell

Participating member
Location
Stillwater, OK
Hey, guys. I'm a small one man show and have been in business for a little over a year now. I've been sitting at about three weeks out all summer and could really use a helper, at least on the big removals. My big issue is worker's comp. I probably only need seasonal/part-time help right now. Worker's comp is based off of annual pay and I have no clue how many hours a week or how long I'll need help. How would you go about this?

Also, I understand that even though I'm paying somebody, I should be making more because I will be able to complete jobs faster and do more jobs per week. At the same time, though, I have a hard time looking at the added cost of worker's comp and their salary and can't help wonder if it's even worth it at this point. I don't know if a groundsman will be able to speed things up enough to more than pay for himself. Am I just being small-minded?

Maybe I'm more interested in the costs/benefits of taking that next step.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions!
 
Ground help is a beautiful thing! Don't doubt that it will speed things up for you, especially once you find a rhythm together.
Workers comp is complicated and I don't know much, but I do know that two men can do 3 times as much as one.
I guess you should do your best to estimate the anual wages based on how much you've done in seasons past and start looking for your helper!
 
Day labor companies include w/c in their hourly rate.

Self-lowering skills pay off, and can be safer (or more dangerous) than a rookie roper, and speed lines dumb-down the groundie requirements. You can terminate the bottom of the speed line with a steel biner, and adjust slack from the top. Less rope on ground means groundie is less encumbered.

But a mini. Find a grapple truck haul--your sub contractor.
 
I could only find two temp agencies to work with me in my entire metro. Never even asked if they were insured to climb. It was 50 percent of hourly pay for the service but well worth it to have 5 or 6 six guys on payroll to fill in on weekends and no extra work just report hours. My issue was pricing things for two competent people then only having myself.
 
rope-a-dope said:
Ground help is a beautiful thing! Don't doubt that it will speed things up for you, especially once you find a rhythm together.
Workers comp is complicated and I don't know much, but I do know that two men can do 3 times as much as one.
I guess you should do your best to estimate the anual wages based on how much you've done in seasons past and start looking for your helper!
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I don't doubt that it would speed things up. Like I said, I am SMALL- truck and trailer right now. My trailer fills up faster than a chipper truck and requires me to dump more, which realistically takes at least thirty minutes to an hour. Being familiar with the type of guys my old boss brought in from temp agencies, I'm not sure I'd trust them driving my only truck right now. That is if they even had a license.

A chipper truck and chipper is definitely a goal, I just don't what my top priority should be. It seems like it's a big circle. An employee would almost necessitate a chipper and a chipper would open up more work to need an employee.
 
CaPowell said:
A chipper truck and chipper is definitely a goal, I just don't what my top priority should be. It seems like it's a big circle. An employee would almost necessitate a chipper and a chipper would open up more work to need an employee.
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Big nasty circle! It's what every company goes through... do I buy this, hire them, what's the goal, what's my strategy to get there, and will the work hold up? Just a few questions many face. Employee or chipper? Cart or horse? Chicken or egg? Which comes first? In the end it's going to be you weighing the pros and cons of each option/direction. Now the problem winds up being speculative data. You can only guess (educated maybe) at what's best. Either way it's gonna cost you money, and could be lots of it. But either could make lots + lots. As long as you make back what you spend plus what you need to survive it's all good.
I think many of us have been where you are, I know I was. Loading brush into a trailer isn't going to keep a quality individual around for long. (By quality I mean the guy we all would like to hire). Hell, I have known some companies that have all the toys, and still can't guys to stick around, but that's a whole other story.
Good luck, and remember either way you go it should save you time.
Ps sorry for the rambling I must be tired. But I'm not going to rewrite :sleep:
 
Look into subbing out the clean up, or at least the chipping.
Just stage all the brush in neat piles to be chipped quickly, as long as you are personable enough with your customers and explain to them that their yard will have some brush in it for a day it shouldn't be a problem.

I contract for a guy who does a lot of work this way. I come get the trees down and he just curbside stages all of the brush gets all of the wood out and cleans up. Granted he comes back with his own truck and chipper later and chips it all, but I do the same thing on occasion and just rent a truck and chipper from a local company or line up a few jobs like that and hire them to literally chip brush for 6 hours.

That is my two cents.
 
TCtreeswinger said:
Maybe look for a contract guy. You can share climbing and ground work. It's expensive but much cheaper than training someone
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Yeah, that would be ideal. Let them pay for their own insurance. I don't mind paying somebody well, it's the paying 20% on top of it for worker's comp that feels like throwing money into the void. I know it's necessary, but that doesn't make it any easier.
 
TCtreeswinger said:
I could only find two temp agencies to work with me in my entire metro. Never even asked if they were insured to climb. It was 50 percent of hourly pay for the service but well worth it to have 5 or 6 six guys on payroll to fill in on weekends and no extra work just report hours. My issue was pricing things for two competent people then only having myself.
Click to expand...
That's the option that is probably the easiest right now and probably the best for part-time help. It's the same here: 50%. That's the number that's getting to me.
 
Drumbo said:
Look into subbing out the clean up, or at least the chipping.
Just stage all the brush in neat piles to be chipped quickly, as long as you are personable enough with your customers and explain to them that their yard will have some brush in it for a day it shouldn't be a problem.

I contract for a guy who does a lot of work this way. I come get the trees down and he just curbside stages all of the brush gets all of the wood out and cleans up. Granted he comes back with his own truck and chipper later and chips it all, but I do the same thing on occasion and just rent a truck and chipper from a local company or line up a few jobs like that and hire them to literally chip brush for 6 hours.

That is my two cents.
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Yeah, I should have subbed on these two. I had a large elm and a large maple removal within a week of each other. That's when I really started thinking, "Hey, I could use an extra hand here." lol
Rodman_elm.webp Rodman_maple.webp
 
Looking at those pictures, you got a choice that needs to happen soon. Especially if that's going to be the norm. You either need to turn that stuff down or grow. Your body ain't gonna hold up to that sort of punishment. Try renting a mini skid for a week or two on jobs like that. Around here a machine that lifts just short of 2k is 450 a week. Sure, you probably won't be able to get a grapple (depending on the yard) but forks are better than your back.
You rent one a few times you won't be thinking about WC for a few more months, you will be thinking about financing. And interest is a heck of a lot cheaper than WC.
I would say you could rent a chipper but then you would be into making trips to get equipment there. Also, a dump trailer would be very helpful. I hate loading brush and wood by hand, but having to unload it is even worse!
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
Looking at those pictures, you got a choice that needs to happen soon. Especially if that's going to be the norm. You either need to turn that stuff down or grow. Your body ain't gonna hold up to that sort of punishment. Try renting a mini skid for a week or two on jobs like that. Around here a machine that lifts just short of 2k is 450 a week. Sure, you probably won't be able to get a grapple (depending on the yard) but forks are better than your back.
You rent one a few times you won't be thinking about WC for a few more months, you will be thinking about financing. And interest is a heck of a lot cheaper than WC.
I would say you could rent a chipper but then you would be into making trips to get equipment there. Also, a dump trailer would be very helpful. I hate loading brush and wood by hand, but having to unload it is even worse!
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I wish the rental companies carried mini's around here. I've had that same exact thought and know a mini is worth a couple of guys. Unfortunately, none of the three companies have one, because they're not "profitable". I asked one guy why they didn't have any and he said they used to have three of them, but nobody ever rented them, they would just come in and get the biggest skid they could. I think a lot of people just don't know what they're capable of.

Closest rental is an hour away. Same for Vermeer dealer.
 
Thanks, man. That's what I call going the extra mile! It's been over a year since I've checked, but the second company is my go to for rentals. I probably brushed it off before because it was a walk behind unit, but now I'd give it a try.
 
CaPowell said:
Thanks, man. That's what I call going the extra mile! It's been over a year since I've checked, but the second company is my go to for rentals. I probably brushed it off before because it was a walk behind unit, but now I'd give it a try.
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A walk behind unit is what you are looking for in a mini (what May yards call them). Most have a ride on platform built in except maybe that toro (it's an option they may not have gotten). But I think I saw they deal with ditch witch too so you might get lucky. Even if you have to walk behind it it's better than pushing that log on by hand... and you will still have steam left at the end of the day.
 
You're rolling logs with the arch, so that's a good move. A mini with that arch will do a lot.

You can buy a grapple, for the mini rent. You will eventually get a mini, unless you end up going for a small articulated loader.

Financing a dump trailer will probably be cost effective, if you're truck will pull it.
 
Worker's comp is just an employee expense, same as wage, training, safety enforcement (employers can do whatever they want) SS employer contributions, taxes by accountant for employees, payroll processing, that goes into the overall cost of the employee.


The customer has to pay for the expenses. The employee should be making you money, not costing you money.
 
Time to formalize your business by doing a business plan. It doesn't have to be one of those elaborate ones that is used to seek financing or such. You need to evaluate your growth thus far and then project your future revenues. Do the homework to find out what you can off load to a second worker and build in the costs.

You are the owner of a business that provides tree care services, not a tree guy running his own show.
 
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