Thinking Of Making A Big Change..

ruskent

Previously, up to this year i worked solo. Then this year i hired a foreman at $20 a hour and 2 labors. Unforuntaly, things have not been working out to good. I got into some very big projects and underestimated them. This is partly do to my inexperience and not knowing my new workers production. I would work with the guys about 40% of the time. The rest of the time i'd get materials, socialize with clients, work on estimates, and god knows what else.

Jobs came out good, but they took way to long to get done. I just started a extremely large and complicated job. Due to the fact the job is so complicated i need to be there 100% of the time. I am thinking that if i am there all the time i mind as well fire the foreman and save myself almost 5k a month.

The foreman does good work, but is slow. Partially because he is 50 years old. Hes not a good leader. Does not want to learn anymore english than he knows. Wants to always do things his way. He has a extremely high income to monthly living expense. He has so much access cash that even if we get rain days he does not want to work saturdays.

Basically, i do not know enough about my business yet to run multiple crews profitably. I know that. It was my plan to runs muliple jobs next year with muliple crews, until i realized i was not making money. I think what i really need to do is fire the formean and just go back to working 100% of the time myself with the 2 laborers. I could put over a k a week more into my pocket then with less headaches.

Honestly, i think this is what i am going to do.

What do you guys think?

Matt

newguy07

Why can't you train the labors. Are they young? Why not split some profit with them if they finish on time and do good craftsmanship.

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ruskent

Thats what i want to do. One of the laborers is 19. In the last 6 months he has improved so much. His english has improved dramaticly. When i hired him he could not speak a word of english. Than during the summer i paired him up with a 17 year old high school kid. Now i can call him up and hold conversations with him on the phone.

newguy07

He seems to have more motivation. The 50 year old since he "doesn't" have to work that hard to make ends meet seems like he isn't willing to make deadlines

BuiltByMAC

You've put some serious time and cash into your foreman. Is there a possibility of getting higher production and better management out of him if you worked alongside him on this big job?

You want to fire him because you'll have to be on the job 100% of the time anyway so the next question is, can the two of you working with two laborers complete the project faster? Fast enough so the labor charge of keeping him on will be outweighed by the larger profit of finishing the job sooner?

Is your foreman willing to learn to be a foreman (communication skills, management skills) if his job is on the line?

Which will be harder and more costly - trying to bring him up to speed or starting over with a new crew next year?

I'm sorry I don't have more answers than questions for you - dealing with employees is one very large reason why I'm a one-man shop. With employees, there are larger profits possible...with larger headaches guaranteed.

Good luck with your decisions, you'll become stronger and smarter because of these hard times.

Mac

newguy07

Also, why not give some incentive to stay with you. Take care of him in other words where if he were to leave to another company he wouldn't get the same treatment and quickly be coming back to you. Give him that "security"

ruskent

My foreman makes extremely good money for his job, even in Northern NJ.

When i confront him on his speed he says "What you don't like my job?"

curapa

Your foreman doesn't sound like a good employee. He may be well skilled but it takes a lot more to be a foreman. I would say he's lacking two of the major requirements for the job, 1. time conscious, a good foreman considers their boss's money and time like their own and knows the more money they make their employer the more money they will receive. 2. leadership, that is what being a foreman is all about, if he doesn't have leadership skills then knock him down in pay to what he is, a laborer.

ruskent

The main thing is, when he is doing a certain task he will not think ahead of what he can have the two laborers do instead of just standing around.

BTW he screwed up 2 simple things on 1 job that ended up costing me 3 days labor plus potential earnings for 3 days. So he is not always perfect.

Ain't it great having employees.

newguy07

What would happen if you were to give your foreman some $$ incentive for finishing early? Therefore, he would use his two labors wisely

ruskent

The guy is already over paid so i really do not want to throw more money at him.

newguy07

Then train the two labors/apprenticeship. Give them a fancy title and training.

How long do you think it would take until you think one of the labors could lead a job?

dirt diggler

Matt, for one, it doesn't sound like the foreman is doing much for you if you're onsite 50% of the time anyways. If I was paying someoen 60K a year - I'd be damned if I'd be spending anymore time on that jobsite other than collecting a check, checking up on things (briefly), and chatting (selling) with the client. So I agree - fire him.

What you've done is you've tried to grow on something that's not there. You're missing several things. For one - you should NOT (and cannot) be underestimating these jobs.

Your 2 biggest problems 1) lack of focus. Go ahead, diversify all you want. Whatever works. BUT - you must focus.

2) learn your business. One thing you cannot do on high end jobs is underestimate and/or lose money. When you've only got 1 or 2 jobs going at once - there is not much room for monetary loss ... when you get to the point of having to bring in that 3rd job to rob peter/pay paul ... that's when things really get slippery.

dirt diggler

do not do this Matt

newguy07

Why not?

ruskent

Some jobs i only stop to check up on the job once a day, other times i am there all day.

Dirt I will admit that while i am able to perform the work and deliver a quality product, i am not at the point where i am finshing projects on time and on budget. I think what it comes down to is i need to SLOW down and learn more about the business. I think what i am going to do is fire this so called 'foreman' and stay small until the point where i can consistanly finsh jobs on time and on budget. Growing before i can accomplish that would be pointless.

Whats funny is, i used to look back and think 'man i am so much smarter then i was when i started in business.' Now where i go to bed at night i look back and think "I am so much smarter then when i woke up in the morning.!"

Being in business is tuff. But i am learning a tremendous amount and pretty soon all these little peices will come together and i'll be running a good business.

POOLMANinCT

a bonus for managing the resources he was hired to do???? nah...
matt what was the foreman doing last year.

ray

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dougchips

$40,000 is great money.....if you can a trailer park to live in. I notice that Northern NJ is a little short on trailer parks. Hopefully his wife and kids have a couple of jobs.

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copusbuilder

Yeh but he no speaky gud anglish.

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