I know all about it. Everyone is working on their music/movie/fashion design career and "this job is temporary". But there are still kids out there that want to work. A lot of kids have no role models, opportunities or sense of direction so they end up working their asses off at McDonalds or Footlocker where they are treated like disposable razors. Find those people and train them and they will be your best employees. They will be happy to work for $10 an hour doing something real and you will be happy to give them $15/$20 etc as they get better and become bigger problem solvers for your company.

Why do you work for someone else since it's obviously so easy to run a business? Why in the world wouldn't you start your own company and create the next Best Buy since you think you have all the answers?

Mac, hiring someone is anything but easy. Sure you can place an ad, sure the phone will ring. That does not mean you're done. For every ad I place for EXPERIENCED people, I probably get 50 responses from people that were never in a field even closely related. I will get another 20 responses from people in live theater that think that correlates to this business. And most come through from people that cannot even take the time to address their email in a properly formed letter, with resume attached.

Sure I can just hire ANYONE off the street, but that will not do anything to lighten my workload. I already have one of those people, and need to find a replacement. Today, it took him 9 hours to run 3 cat5's and a coax from one side of the room to the other in a channel he had to cut behind the baseboard that the builder removed for us. 9 hours. I can train all day, but this very basic task took this individual 9 hours. When I spoke to him about this, he scoffed like I am being unreasonable to expect that it should have taken no more than an hour and a half (that would be the time expected if he were sleeping through it).

Point, anyone can find "help". Finding HELP though is far more difficult than you can imagine until you actually try. Some of us spend years building a business and cannot just hand the keys over to a fry guy simply cause he wants to make more than $10 an hour. The real hard workers that also happen to be technologically minded, have experience in this field or at the very least knowledge in electronics and ability to learn are VERY difficult to find. Some companies spend their entire existence looking for those people, never finding them.

Then I apologize for my line of posts. Not tying fins impossible post to yours was my downfall.


Now, as to your Lawn mowing reference... I never wanted to mow the lawn and didn't stop mowing the lawn until the point where my time became more valuable then it cost to pay someone to mow the lawn.

I think that right there is the tipping point you're looking for.

When does your time become more valuable then the cost to pay someone else to do it (and can you afford it)?

I haven't read through all of This but glanced through it.

i think you could pay someone a significant salary and free up a lot of time. You lost money, but you'd likely be losing money if you sold and took a job anyway.

With the existing contracts that you have, you may be In a prime position to sell, serious food for thought. If so, you need to write down everything you do every day and that your employee do, this would then serve as a manual on how to operate the business.

I hear ear where you are coming from. I'm in a odd grey area where I'd like to make more money, but the work isn't flooding in so fast that I have to grow. The work has been steady, but still stepping stones into the market that I'd like to be in.

This post made me think of a tech in training that I had.  The drywall guys covered the TV outlet, it is 2 holes to the left of the AC outlet.  I was out of town, he was sent to terminate/trim the wall plates and the can.  Its a 30 minute drive from the office.  He calls me after he has driven back to the office to tell me that the TV wiring in the MBR was not cut out.  Really?  you didn't find it and cut it out while you were on site?  He decides to drive back to the job site the next morning and proceeded to cut 8 holes looking for the TV wire.  Not only did He spend another hour of windshield time, but it took 2 hours to cut the 8 holes.

He wondered why I pissed when the builder calls me the next day and sends me this picture.

See, there was where Mac erred again. I never said anything was impossible. But I did find his nonchalant, "just hire someone" solution to be laughable. It is right in line with when a child looks at a parent, wanting a new toy, and says, "well, just write a check for it", not understanding the implications involved in what seems like such a simple transaction.

ROFL. That is exactly what I believed as a kid.

The problem is that eggs cost money. If you don't have enough revenues to pay someone, then all of your advice is worthless. That's the position enormous numbers of small businesses find themselves in. Money doesn't grow on trees.

You shouldn't necessarily go out and get the extra work until you have the people hired and trained. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for serious potential problems. So it's you who has to cover that transition period financially (and of course training the person and interviewing people takes up a lot of time, which you don't have because you are working like crazy to keep the lights on and to make enough money to hire someone new.)

Many businesses hit a dead end there, because they can't get over that bootstrapping problem.

And of course if you are in a product development oriented business, no bank is likely to give you a loan. In those types of businesses 'loans' becomes 'venture capital', and banks don't really do that. Unless you have a REALLY good story, venture capitalists also don't generally deal with small businesses either. They work with businesses that have a reasonable chance to go large within a fairly short period of time.

Anyway, obviously small businesses can bootstrap themselves up. But just waving your hand in a 'let them eat cake' sort of way seriously belittles the massive effort and risk that's often involved.

The biggest problem for us to grow our businesses is finding qualified help. Every time we place an ad in the newspaper, etc. it's the same thing....I hooked up a stereo for a buddy or somebody looking to install car stereo. Nobody has time to train anybody and the margins are too thin in the business to have people waste your time training them. Last year I hired a skilled installer and then of course our business dipped for 4 months. I had to lay him off as I didn't want to burn threw our cash not knowing how long the slow down will last. We are busier than ever before now and I am afraid to hire more people. The crazy stock market doesn't help my uncertainty, it sucks working the long days but I would rather do that than lay somebody off. If the our work load stays strong I will add an office person and free up my time for more sales and follow-up.

No way would I become a rep! I vote for raising your prices and adding consultation fees to fend off the tire kickers. I have brought back trip charges, project management, delivery, and system design fees for 2016.

Alright Jeff, how about you set up a new company to run custom, cherry pick your best guys, and let it roll small and expensive. Then go about selling production to a larger alarm company that can slam in abus systems and Bose. If the contracts are 7 years, the production side will appear valuable to the right idiot wanting to establish monitoring contracts.

Yep

Respectful people will work around your hours, find them(the people). Close at 4:00 and be home at 5:00. Be closed on weekends, make the choice, be firm about it, you will be fine and who knows you might even get your bean snapped once and awhile!

No need to shut it all down, the word NO carries much power and wisdom.

Your employees will be happier and I bet you get more done in the long run.

If you have bad processes, piling more work on top does not make it better.

Life gets a lot better when working in production building isn't a part of it.

That sounds like a dream come true. Others are logically telling you to get out of production and only do expensive custom. You’re getting that and someone is willing to pay you for the part you don’t want anyway. It may be tough to find someone willing to give you a decent multiple for your production business AND structure the non compete so it would allow you to do custom work. If you can find that take it.