What Kind Of 'office' Staff Do You Have?

PipeGuy

Do you have full-time 'office' help? Bookkeeper? Estimator? Secretary? etc. If so, at what volume of 'sales' do you think our kind of work demands that level of administrative/marketing support?

At +$2M / year (don't forget utility construction is material intense) I'm struggling (if not drowning) trying to be the bookkeeper/project manager/estimator. A/P, A/R...estimating is crisis mode only. Material procurement is haphazard. Is hiring help the answer? Should I be able to do this myself?
Estimating/sales was pretty much my thing prior to going out on my own in '03 (started estimating in '87). My partner has the field end of the business well covered. Am I screwing up trying to juggle these balls or just a piss poor juggler? Please give it to me straight guys. I gots to know.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

Mike Finley

I think only you can answer that.

mdshunk

I'm sharing a girl with another nearby business. It's working out okay, but I can't task her with much besides some stuff I need done in Excel and saying "hello" when the phone rings.

Hiring people... the learning curve for them is great. If you think you've got your hands full now, hire someone. You'll be even busier until you've got them trained enought to take some of the burden off you.

It might benefit you to oursource (or hire for) some of the stuff that requires no training, such as the a/p, a/r, and other more mundane book keeping.

Double-A

You've answered your question already. Time to start working on the business instead of working in the business.

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"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

PipeGuy

Doh!

__________________
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

realpurty2

If you decide hiring someone isn't an option, atleast you can organize the load a bit to make it go smoother.

Gather a list of your AP's and due dates, then set aside one day a week (or month depending on dates and volume) to do those.

AR's are usually done daily, at the end of business day.

Set your payroll up to be completed the day before it's due at the end of the day.

Depending on your volume of jobs and how you schedule them out, you should be able to do scheduling and material procurement on Fridays for the following week, but if high volume, might set aside two hours each afternoon for those.

Do all reconcilliations one day at the end of the month.

Schedule yourself either full days or a few hours out of the office for sales and field estimates each week.

Wednesday's make a good day for customer contacts, use those for any follow-ups, meetings, emails or heaven forbid.. collections.

There is many other ways but you get the point. All the associated office work needs the same organization and scheduling as any project or else it becomes an unruly burden coming at you demanding attention immediately. Break it down into smaller chunks and knock off task systematically and it isn't all that bad, even if your still working in the field too.

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Woman in a Man's World.

rino1494

I always said, the more money you gross, the more headaches you have. My dad and I do the estimating and meeting with customers while my mother does all of the bookwork, billing, payroll, etc...

If you feel that you have your head under water, you could look into paying someone part-time. Maybe you could find someone that does bookwork full-time and pay them a few hrs a week to do it on the side.

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Life is hard. It is harder when you are stupid

Uncle Sam wants YOU....to speak ENGLISH

Melissa

I have no business being in the Excavation & Site Work Forum, so you can just tell me to go jump in a lake but I was wondering why your partner isn't doing the project management instead of you? To me it makes more sense that way where there is the office/business side and there is the actual getting the work done side.

PipeGuy

He does Meklissa. He's in the field every day between our various jobs. He schedules all our field resources, manages the equipment maintainence, manages the foremen, schedules material deliveries, etc., etc. My role in "project management" is writing various notices and responces, purchase orders, change order requests, etc.

__________________
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

dayexco

funny you should bring this up. presently, we do all of our own AP, AR, my acct does all the tax reporting. clerical stuff, etc...between my son and myself, we seem to butcher our way through most of the time office wise. my son wants to build a new office building and "condo" the offices and staff out. our business isn't large enough to warrant having a full time person taking calls, doing clerical, doing books. with your association fee, you'd get your own private office, "x" amount of hours dedicated to you for clerical/accounting work, and all phone calls personally answered. i've talked to contractors my size in other trades, and they think it will go over well

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

Double-A

Growing is difficult. My suggestion is right along the lines of what Purty is advising.

Once you have a systems down pat, and documented, then you can consider hiring someone. I wouldn't hire someone and just ask them to jump in, unless this is someone you know well, and can trust implicitly.

Its your business, it should be run the way you want it to, which is to say, put your system in place then train someone to use it.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Double-A

"Tonka my butt! At Gene Day Exco, THIS is how we roll!"

Lucky little turd.

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Grumpy

I'm no excavator but this is my current setup. I have myself, a production manager, two salesmen, and a part time book keeper. We are not yet at 2 mil revenue, and I see no reason for this other than we are new and working out the bugs. I am trying to grow slow.

By the end of the year I am hoping to hire a part time office helper to do the phone, email and filing thing. At the start of next year I am hoping to hire another salesman.

PipeGuy

Thanks all. You're the bestisses
I got some dinner with a buddy tonite that has his own home building business. His thougts are much like those expressed here. Time for me to dig in, get a better plan for 'the office' and work it.

__________________
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn