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how much staff do you have?


premnayloon

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Started with just me and the odd part timer 18 years ago worked up to 7 guys at about mid way point the. Started to realise we were paying more in wages than realy making money and I never had time to actually do any fencing myself as spent most of my time running around in circles sorting everyone out, so now full circle just me and Ian out fencing and my wife and another lass run the supply shop that's evolved at the yard over the last few years.. Alls good and far less stressful ..

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When i started fencing when i was younger, the fellow that tought me built his company up and by the time i left he had about 20 odd working for him but it seemed like the was no real pride in the job anymore it was all about high output. I work on my own as im only starting out but have a slef employed mate that gives me a chuck when im pulling my hair out.

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Pride in work and high output is all down to the standards and quality control set by the management, we all go to work to make money. The better the management the better the standard and quality of work and the higher the output resulting in a profitable business. unfortunately we all get older and the body becomes knackerd . You cant do the job for ever even if you enjoy it and want to, We can all run around being busy fools, sometimes if you are not actually doing the day to day job you can step back and manage the business , run it as you want to, you know how long it takes to do a job remembering your standards and that YOU ARE THE BOSS !!

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The guy I learned from has taught me to be fussy, always cut off the tails of termination/ joining knots, he would even demand that the staples were on the middle of the posts, unless a knot got in the way

He maintained that if a fence looked tidy then it meant there was less chance of someone going around it looking for flaws

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Then what he has taught you is 100% correct, you are a professional contractor you are your own manager, your standards should be higher than others Your customers will not be able to pick fault in your work, this will result in repeat business and more importantly recommendations . You will get busy and need to take no more staff as long as your margins are high enough your business will grow

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Started out on my own was doing it all by hand like wee all start out?.the first year was ok made well was lambing fencing and shearing really was injoying the mix off work.

 

But think the word got out on the fencing ended up that year put up 30 plus k off fencing bye hand most off it was in the hill.and done the lambing then stubitly jumped in the pickup head down to Wiltshire to start my shearing season ended up shearing 18 thousand that season .think I only had 4 proper days off that year wife was no happay.

 

Year 3 off my start up decided to get a couple off self employed guys in worked well.landed 3 jobs that added up to 60 k plus .so gave up the shearing and got the boys in 3 our 4 days a week.still doing it by hand then my mentality then was postdriver and quick fencer where for soft lads.

 

After that change my mind on kit and started investing now am putting up just the same our more per year on my own and loving it.work on my own agin and that the way I roll.

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Stevew you are very correct in all you say the biggest problem is finding the staff, I don't know where you are based but we are not in a rural area and most are not interested in this kind of job.

We have loads of work now as we did back when I employed 7 lads, our business is far more profitable running one gang than three ok it takes longer to get to jobs but our regular customers are happy to wait because they want us to do the job.

Would be interested to know how you go about finding the correct staff and keeping them ..! As round here basic labours want 18-19k and a gang Forman wants 25-28k ?

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the biggest problem with solo work is that you really NEED at least two guys if working a chapper.

When doing a run of posts you have to have an operator on the tractor and one working the chapper,

Now as I hire in my chapper,

I point my strainers,then when the contractor arrives we lay out the strainers and turners, chap them the lay out the posts and chap,

My best day for that was a job with 30 str/ turn/ and 600 posts, the chapper arrived at 9 am, and we had everything chapper by 5.30 that day, inc stopping for fly and dinner.

Providing everything is ready me and the contractor can really crack on she knows how i work now and vice versa.

 

I go to site before hand and Mark out where strainers and turners are to go .

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In my opinion you guys that work alone, it's fantastic and I take my hat off to you it's how I started but you can only do it whilst your body will allow you to, and as you get older it will tell you to slow down and then stop, you cant do it for ever. you have to get your prices to a level so that you can invest in the latest most modern equipment and make your life easier. With that equipment your production will go up and you will get to more customers because you are not constantly chasing your **** you will have time to maintain standards. If you take the graft and hard work out of the job you will encourage more staff. I have been in business for over 40 years and one of the best bits of advice I ever heard was from Sir Allan Sugar ( if you think small you will always stay small ) that is Not targeted at any of you as individuals. it's a fact.

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Yep I've got the kit now like to thinck I work smart and it allows me to put a bit extra into my work. I often look at work that I have done in the past to check where it is falling and I always find something to improve am hard on my self always find fault in my work .

 

The only thing a afread off with getting staff now is feeding the machine with work on the right job with the right kit and team u could get threw a hell of a work.

 

And I would not have time to do what I enjoy putting up fences.i would be stuck pricing work and all the other bull sh xxx that goes with the job.

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I started on my own then employed a couple of different lads over the years and some were more of a hindrance than a help. I then bought the tracked knocker and did a couple of years on my own, but I couldn't get through the jobs quick enough and I thought this wasn't sustainable. I have had another chap with me for 6 months or so and he is good and have got some other self employed people that can help when really busy. I want to expand and be able to take on every job I get but my biggest problem is getting the others to take as much pride in it as I do and I am very fussy! I have every tool possible to make life easier on me and the people I work with, with the aim of making the job easier and more enjoyable. I don't see the point in being worn out by 40 and then not being able to do half as much. I am a firm believer that oil pressure is better than blood pressure!

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I've approached the "you can't do the job for ever" part in a different way, as we had a yard full of materials we started to sell out of the yard a few years back as there was a lack of good suppliers in our area.. This is now going great guns we supply a lot of smaller contractors and also sell tools/fitting on line we worked out who are the good contractors coming to us and now pass extra work on to them and in return they buy the materials off us so we still make something out of the job.. On the contracting side I think when I hit 50 I will stop (4years) and just do the do supply side.

The main earner on the supply side is that we are so close to birmingham / coventry and all the urban sprawl between the domestic costumers have the option of getting their fencing from BQ a builder merchant or us and we can give them the correct advise and price.

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No one will ever do the job the way you do it and no one will ever take pride in a job the way you do, that is why you are the Boss and why you started on your own, because you saw what others did and knew you could do better.

It's a real hard act to follow. But you go to work to make money

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i employ 2 full time & one part time, if we had better going then i could manage with less but when we get the awkward hand work the extra hands come in usefull, the best and tidiest work is when there's just me and tom.

Left one of my lads knocking posts in with tracked machine all day and the following morning when he arrived on site my comment was . todays competition is find the straight post, im sure there is one but im F*/k*d if i can find it. I then spent about 3 hrs sorting them out (i wasnt happy)

 

like a lot of you i started on my own made a good job so demand grew and the rest is history

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I employ myself and one other full time, plus the wife is also employed full time officially, then have one part time. I often have to,turn work down because we can't cope, but I enjoy the fencing side of things. I do not enjoy going out quoting and dealing with customers. It is the bug bear of having my own business. So if I took on more staff i would spend more time in. The office and less time working. Also profit margin is better whne I am out doing the work as i earn my money in the fixing rate. If I was jsut pricing I would have to build that time into the quoting of the jobs you do get, just to cover my time. At present I can work in the day and price jobs at evening time. Still have to allow for my time but it's not as much as if I was pricing all days very day. Plus I think efficiency goes up when I am out on site, not because the lads slack, just because I am the one making the final decisions and have a plan in my head anyway. Think the,guys do a good job whne I am not on site. If you do a good job, you should always be busy and as someone said to me a hungry beast will always need feeding.

Think the best advice I was given, wasn't by Alan sugar but a friend said, if there are advances in technology that help you and make the job easier move with the times if you can afford it. There is no point paying tax on profits if you' can buy a machine rhta will improve your work. A machine doesn't cost you national insurance and PAYE, it doesn't phone in sick and doenst complain about the other machines you own.

 

I know it's not for everyone but I like small and I am happy to keep small. I don't want to build the biggest empire. I love what I do and why change that just to say i employ 5 gangs. Some of the smaller business are the most innovative as they are the ones needing to find better and easier ways to do things. So balls to Alan sugar, he's fired From front row fencing.

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I am hoping to run the Lincolnshire independent party.

We are one of the largest food producing counties in the uk. We are also one of the biggest counties in the uk. We can close our county borders if required and bring the country to its knees. We produce enough food to be self sufficient for the county, we can produce our own beer and spirits with the grain we produce ( distillation would be legalised) there is no Reason why we can't be independent. It would have helped my cause if Scotland had got independence. I am sure I could come to,some agreement with Warwickshire for you charlie if you vote me.

Anyway I have digressed from fencing.

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