Welcome to Teen Lawn Care's very first series post! I wrote a post about "Getting Helpers for When You're Gone", and it turned out to be too long for one writing. So, here's the last in a four part series about getting helpers when you're gone. View Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. Enjoy!
Making your Relationship More Permanent
For now, your helpers are only there for when you are out of town or can't do a lawn. However, you could extend this relationship between you and your employee by making it more permanent.
For example, one day, you may hope to have more lawns than you can do on your own. Since you don't have time to mow all of them yourself, your call-up employees could help you manage them. You get a cut of what the customer pays for the lawn to be mowed, and you pay your helpers the standard wage you have always paid them.
Eventually, your company role could morph into one that coordinates, markets, and keeps track of financial information than that of manual labor-- other people are actually mowing the lawn, and you are taking a cut of that.
It doesn't have to just be for mowing, either. For example, I don't have enough time in the fall to run a profitable
leaf raking venture. However, if I get some helpers who have more time than I do on their hands, I could make a lot of money just finding jobs for my employees.
The possibilities for expansion could become endless. ;)
My Business
This method works, I've done it myself. My buddy and I have two people who can potentially mow when either of us goes out of town. They are both very happy about how much they get paid, and my buddy and I are very happy about the cut we get from the payment the customer gives us.
As an interesting scenario, if my buddy and I had our two helpers mow all our lawns (which would kind of ruin our reputation with our customers, but that's a different post ;] ), we would make $14.50 a week, each. (And that's with taking out 30% for the future of our business, a post that will come later.) If I owned the company myself, I would get $29 a week. No manual labor.
It's an interesting side note, and a potential for your business, too.
Conclusion
Having helpers is a good idea for your business. It allows you to go on vacation and not have to worry too much about the length of your customers' grass. As long as you execute your plan to get your friends working for you, having helpers can be a real asset to your business.
This is the last in a four part series. View the previous posts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Labels: business
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Hey, Ben. You're on to something with hiring people to do your work. According to Michael Gerber's book, eMyth, there are 3 different types of entrepreneurs.
1. Technician - the person who owns the business and does all of the work.
2. Manager - the business owner who hires and manages employees to do the work.
3. Entrepreneur - the person who sets up the business, hires employees, then hires managers to manage the employees and other aspects of business.
You're right that the hardest part about moving up the ladder is finding quality labor to do the work. But if you can, that's where the real money lies.
That's a cool way of looking at the different types of entrepreneurs. If I examine at myself in relation to my business, I guess I'm a technician. However, if I take my business up a notch, I could potentially be partially a "manager."
I can also see how these different tiers could be used when creating goals for your business, with your low-level goals being technician-related work, and your high-level goals being entrepreneur-related work.
Like you said: Managing is how the top guys make the big bucks.