Who Utilizes Office/Administrative Help?????

Mud Master

I was just mullin' over the site, waiting for a client to arrive and thought this might be a good question...

Do you have office/administrative help on your payroll? Like a secretary, Bookkeeper, etc.. or do you prefer to do all the paperwork yourself? Some of us are to small to warrent having a administrative expense. Does anyone use an outside company to do thier work? Like Paychex?

I am a small business and I used to do all my work myself, but as I grew I found it hard to manage in the field, go and do estimates, and still find time to do all the paperwork, return phonecalls, type up invoices, etc.. So now I have a part-time secretary who comes in on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. She takes and returns calls, does the invoicing, verifies and types change orders, does filing, takes weekly time sheets and does payroll. Even does some light vaccuming and tidying up.

So what about you? Do you have office help? Does your volume warrent office help? Or do you prefer to do it all and have total control of the administrative end of your business?

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Mud Master

hmmm....guess I thought wrong

Oh well, ya win some, ya lose some.

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dougchips

Sorry, I have an office manager who handles payroll, communications and all the other good stuff. She works at the office for a few hours every day and carries a cell phone with the business #.

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

Mud Master

Hmm..Never thought about giving her a cell with the office number? thats a good idea. Our arrangement works out since she has 2 kids that go to preschool Monday Wednesday and Friday's, so Thursday she just brings them with her to the office. Since i've never seen it to interfer with her work I don't mind. My office is a nice size considering the size of my company, 4 offices and two reception areas..plus it comes with a 60x80 shop, which really comes in handy.

But getting back to the cell phone thing, that would be a good idea. Thanks for the Tip!

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dougchips

I get phone coverage from 8am-730-800 pm m-f and sat from 8am-1200 for small money. The phone gets answered over 90% of the time. My office manager has two kids so if one is at the Dr's the phone goes without coverage. Life without all the interuptions is priceless, or in my case it has a price.

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

Mud Master

I go with Nextel. I have 3 of them on the company. Myself, my foreman, and my lead mechanic. cost's me around $130.00 a month. 300 anytime minutes, free incoming, free nextel to nextel, unlimited direct connect, and free night(7pm-5am) and weekends. It really is a good plan for the money.

I guess it would make sense to give her one, she is lookin for more hours and she can work from home on certain things. I'll mull it over and talk with her about it.

But I guess the thread is dead. oh well, luckily I don't get my feelings hurt easily, or I might just start crying. hehe

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dirt diggler

i'd like to find someone who can run admin (invoices, draw up proposals)

and then maybe they can line up marketing, do books, make coffee


and then I'd like to find someone who can do the sales/estimates/design

and then I'd like to find someone who can do the fieldwork & supervise crews


and then I'd like to sleep in ... maybe read a book

oh - and then I'd like to find someone who can make me dinner and bring it to bed


and then I'd like to find someone who can just "bring it" to bed

heheh

Dibi

I got tired of doing all of the payroll and hired an employee leasing services. We're paying an administrative fee (approx. 2.5-3%). Worker's comp. is at much lower rates than we were paying independently (around 3.4% for project managers for worker's comp). They direct deposit everyone's payroll and file tax reports. All employees receive a W-2 at the end of the year. It saves me a ton of time and paperwork upkeep. For those of us trying to do it all, it really has been a huge time saver.

fez-head

I have been searching for an employee leasing company that will take on 3 people. So far they all want 6 or more. How many people are you running through them?

Thanks,
Jesse

Grumpy

I've used office support in the past and am gearing up to hire another office assistant real soon. Next hire is a siding and window estimator and after this person is trained I will have no choice but to have someone in the office part time answering phones and responding to emails.

I do currently have a part time book keeper that comes in a few nights a week. When I hire the assistant some of his/her duties will be the data entry into quick books that my book keeper currently handles, however my book keeper will still be a necessary component of my company.

I also use paychex for my payroll, but someone has to compile the hours and compile sales rep's commissions. It's a task that my book keepr does, I just review it and call it in.

I am finding right now that my customer service does slack off because I do not have that support staff to aid me in providing top notice customer service.

Melissa

We started out as a husband/wife company. I take care of all the admin stuff, and he takes care of all the work, sales, etc. So, I don't know it any other way. Sometimes, I wonder what he would ever do without me

Dibi

Right now, we have only 5 employees and the leasing service I use is Employee Leasing Strategies (Evan) at 727-421-8250.

We're out of FL so I don't know if that makes any difference but it might be worth a phone call.

Good luck.

fez-head

Thank you I will give him a call.

Doc2626

We only have nine guys in the field, but with three or four jobs running at once, I WISH I had someone to take care of some of the admin. duties. I'm doing everything, from ordering materials to the bookkeeping! There's only two of us that can be trusted to answer the phone intelligently(and sometimes I worry about HIM!), so it's tough to take care of business, and still take care of the business!

I've been thinking lately that it's about time to get someone in the office full time.

WNYcarpenter

wow! The company I work for has 15 capenters, and normally 4 large projects simulaneously.
We have full time:
In-house designer
Secretary
Book Keeper
2 superintendants
2 co-owners

15 carpenters and 7 overhead employees. Either you're extremely overworked, or we're out of our minds!

realpurty2

I am the office... both for our company and one other local GC. We are actually considering hiring an assistant part-time for me this summer.

I know my work load for our company and I couldn't even imagine having to do all of it PLUS work in the field all day too. My hat goes off to you who do.

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Woman in a Man's World.

Doc2626

Or BOTH, WNYcarpenter!

We're all overworked and underpaid here, but it's something we bought into, when we decided to move to a larger shop, and expand our operation. Also, it sounds like your operation is a little larger scale than ours. We manufacture custom cabinets in our shop, and then deliver/install them to commercial sites. Most of the basic design is already done by the architect, by the time we bid the job, and only a little value-engineering makes it into the plans by then.

Seriously, with 15 carpenters and 7 overhead folks, I kinda think that I'm not the ONLY one out of my mind! That's a tough ratio to make money with.

NickofTime

My wife (who is actually typing this post) is a definite asset to my company as she runs the show. Without her I might as well put the nailgun to my head.