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when do you know..


latch

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if you need to hire someone?? i know some of you have had to experienced this...where in order to keep customers and keep your business going you just need HELP... I am interested in hearing at what point some of you decided to hire someone if at all..thanks in advance

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I don't do candles or anything myself, but I do work from home (programming, web design, internet marketing). A few times I had so much work that I needed to outsource it.

Here's my rule of thumb:

When you get to the point where you can make money by doing nothing but letting someone else do it for you, then it's time to hire out. For example: If someone wants a $450 script from me and I am overworked, I can find someone to outsource it to for $200 or $250. I get paid and the one doing the work gets paid.

So if you can make a livable profit AFTER someone is hired, then it's time :)

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For me its coming down to selling my products faster than I can make them....and running a store at the same time. If I'm gonna hire anyone it would be a sales girl or guy one with accounting skills. :tongue2: what I really want is a secretary or a personal assistant.

I alone make my products and don't wish to share that with anyone.

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Maybe i am going about it the wrong way... for all you business minded people i need some advice.. heres my thought process. as some of you may know i have 7 children. at the times when i hve gotten real busy i cant keep up with it all i just say oh i have to stop i cant do this. (because family does come first) then i have those people who say you cant stop, i love your candle....and when you are addicted as i am i dont want to stop... i lost a really good wholesale account, because it took me too long to get back with her. right now i am not making the money to pay someone... but my thoughts are i know if i had some one to help me, run errands, get account, fill orders, package,label, help with books ect... i know i could make enough money. am i looking at it the wrong way..i guess i am scared to grow because of my family situation. They will always top priority.. is it possible to build a business and have most of the time consuming stuff eventually done for you?? any advice would be appreciated.

tia

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Tia - I think it would be a fabulous idea to get someone to help you with the things like errands, packaging and shipping, etc. That way, it's nothing that you can't oversee and it's a smaller amount of responsibility that hard to screw up, until that person earns the trust to become more and more of a stable part of your business.

One thing I've had success with, and my mother before me, when she had her own business, was getting young women from the university in our town. Getting paid about $8-10 per hour (or less for starting out) is like a billion dollars to them, and they are usually very good about making recommendations for friends that are responsible when they graduate. Do you have anything like that in your town or close to you?

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You also need to think through all the legalities of hiring someone. Will they be a real employee? Then you need a federal EIN and pay employement taxes and workers compensation. Can you use them in a different manner where they aren't an employee? You'll need to read up on the federal and your state regulations for when someone is an employee and when someone is not.

Having a true employee entails lots of paperwork and extra tax payments.. You need to be very careful - many small businesses just pay people on the fly for doing things for them, but many times what they are doing isn't quite legal - they're flying under the IRS radar.

Here's some info:

http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/employees/contractor.html

http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/employees/finding.html

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I think about this every day!

I acquired several wholesale accounts at once. I wasn't ready for it and it's been very overwhelming. Sometimes my orders are going out late and that bothers me, but I can't afford to pay anyone yet...

My biggest issue is CONTROL. I don't want to let anyone do anything because I fear they won't do it right, so I'd rather do it myself. However, I hate shipping and have a good friend and my sister who have both offered to help and I think it's time I take them up on that. I don't want my accounts to suffer and possibly lose them because I can't keep up and make deadlines. Luckily, I wouldn't have to pay my friend, free candles is good enough for her!

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You could find someone and pay them "Cash under the table" if they would'nt tell anyone on you. I know it's not legal but alot of small businesses do that for temp / part time / seasonal help.

The other problem is finding someone who will work, be on time and not steal things or info (ie - venders/suppliers, accounts, candle secrets etc.) from you.

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