Got Office Staff???

Thewoodman

I just hired a part time office manager (that is not my wife). I found myself getting sucked away by all the paperwork end of things.

Now I will be free to go out talk to the clients, drum up work, play a little golf.

How many of you out there have office staff? How much has it helped you? What type of tasks do you have them handle? What other Advice would you give me to utilize my new office manager?

Mark

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dougchips

My best investment!

Her Job:

#1 Answer my office phone (cell) from 8am-8-9pm m-s
#2. Log incoming jobs and issue work to my subs.
#3. Pay all of my bills and handle my bank deposits.
#4. Bookkeeping/payroll
#5. Checks my e-mail and replies as needed.
#6. My wife will schedule my personel events with her (I forget).
#7. Keeps salespeople off of my back.
#8. Customer follow up and surveys.

What she will not do:

1. Make me coffee.
2. Water my one office plant
3. Shop for my wife without making me feel quilty.
4. Wash my trucks.
5. Polish my shoes.
6. Iron my clothes, wife has to handle the drycleaning.

copusbuilder

That's great!! Enjoy your time.

I got rid of all my office staff and went back to me and the misses.
They were causing a lot of work on cleaning up their mess and loose ends.
Hope you have a good one that doesn't require that.

Mine did light estimating and supervisory roles.

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copusbuilder

Now I may be misisng something here but I think there is little left for you to do?

Better hold on to her not too many will do that these days

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dougchips

left for me to do.........

1 Spend the mornings with my daughters.
2 "Internet research" off and on during the day.
3 Meet with clients and subs
4 Make plans to grow my business

I could really disappear and nobody would miss me, sort of scary. I am years ahead of my goal of being able to remove myself from the day to day functions.

Mrmac204

something I heard from a local rich guy some years back....

always sign your own checks......

that way you have complete control over what's going on - and do your own little audit of stuff now and then when the office is closed... ya its a bit conspiracy minded, but hey- its your money and your liveleyhood (sp)

Stone Mountain

So what exactly DO you do? I'm 28 years in this business. I have 11-12 crews at the height of the season, 10 plow trucks in winter, a foreman, two driver/demo guys, a part time bookkeeper, a full time office manager (my wife), two full time salesmen, and aprt/part time marketing girl(every 2-3 weeks for a day). I STILL work 60-70 hours a week from March to November, and 40 hours the rest of the year. I could not work less without killing the business.

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dougchips

I get asked that same question everyday. I worked for years without a "proper" profit margin and one day I decided to break away from the pack and actually sell for profit. There is a big difference between everyone making payroll & all bills getting paid and all of the above and money left over. My work schedule use to be Sunday-Sunday 8 am- PM without a day off for months at a time, not much different than yours. BTW, I found that my wife did not make the best office manager.

I generally focus on high margin items like windows and other specialty trades. Our lowest margin is 30% and it goes well over 100% with some items. We are not the highest priced company in our area by far, some charge 40% more than me.

BTW, not all fame a fortune, my annual compensation is under 100k since I invest a lot of money back into the company. Last year I spent a mint on crappy advertisements with a low ROI. I also spent a mint on sales, marketing, production management, and other training classes--this money was well spent, more of an investment.

George Z

You are my hero

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dougchips

I'll have to find the "goals for 2007" thread and post "to be George's hero" then my mission will be complete. If I ever move to Canada I will hire you to paint my iglo if you hire me to vinyl side yours.

Stone Mountain

Dougchips, I see your point.
My markup is never less than 40%, usually around 55%. Snow is 80% or more.
I simply cannot live on less than $100K takehome, so that doesn't help.

This is one reason I'm proceeding with the franchising: I'll grow the company with other people's money, and hopefully in 3 -4 years I can relax a bit.

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Boogga

I had staff before, not now!

One person i had in the office had her duties (generally as above) and I asked her to do light estimating etc, nuffin tuff.

She had the idea of "It's not under my job description, I'm not here to think, just work". I just looked down at my boots in disbelief. I couldn't believe it. So obviously this young lady has no position in my company.

We now run it like a family affair {Family Business}. Better, easier, more efficient. People/Staff you can trust.

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dougchips

Thats cool that you can use other peoples money. I sort of view what I am doing as investing in my future. My wife still works which helps with the insurance and it keeps her out of my hair.

I keep toying with the franchising idea but I am stuck on the following statement; "what can I create that is not easy to duplicate and how can I do this at a profit while providing an attractive package to a potential franchisee owner?" Basically, why should someone buy my business model if they can copy it.

Stone Mountain

Dougchips (sorry I don't know your name: I assume it's Doug?), PM me with your email address and I'll give you a whole long song and dance about how and why to franchise.
You can franchise anything; others will buy your system if you can show them how you can help them step around the whole independent startup thing. The trick of course is to HAVE a system.
Anyway, I'm happy to talk with you about it.
Steve

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