Why I won't grow

[Dave B]

Too right, you can tell by how much the government are trying to push workplace pensions and keep knocking the retiring age back that they are trying to abolish the state pension. 

That's why I'm doing it myself. 

Never rely on anyone else or you will suffer.

The state pension was 65 as back in the days of Victorian workhouses etc nobody lived past 65 so any extra years was a bonus.

Now they say that in 10 years 1 in every 5 people will live past 100 years old they are starting to panic.

 

[laddergarder]

Fair enough but franchising means your "employee" (not an employee on paper) actually earns more as he will take 100% of the cash and give you only 20-25% which means you earn less but less turnover and they keep up to 80% of the money they make.

I have never paid towards a pension in my life it is my business which will pay me once I quit.

5 franchisees paying me 40 quid a day each means I can retire on 1k a week and just do admin from home and never have to go out on the tools.

Plus having a pressure washing van out also means I have a comfortable life.

Not much chance of having a state pension in 21 years when I'm 65 anyway lol.

All depends what you want but I have no faith in government to pay for my lifestyle when I retire.

On the 20% to me 80% to the employee point. Who pays the 4k in costs? Because if its me, I will be left with 1k. If its the employee, he will earn 1k less than he does now. Plus whats the incentive for him, not to just drop my franchise and go it on his own. 

I hope things work out for you as you describe. You can always sell your business which could also give you a retirment pot once yoy've had enough of working, and dealing with those 5 franchisees.

 

[Dave B]

Never build a business without assuming you are going to sell it is what I was taught.

That would always be the best option. 

They pay the costs and you have a 5 year contract or similar where they cannot stitch you up.

 

[Iron Giant]

@laddergarder seems to me like your business is already split to a point in as much as your relative is out on his own doing assigned jobs, the only way to increase turnover and profit is to possibly kit both vans out with wfp as you will get through more jobs more efficiently and either franchise the business or look at selling off 250-300 jobs to your relative so he can go on his own.

This could be done under some form of contract were by he works the round(s) for say 12 months on his own and pays you in monthly instalments and at the end providing no breach of contract and full payment has been made the round(s) he has always worked will become his. 

If you are happy currently then that's great, but is your worker as he is doing the lions share of the work and who knows he may think differently in the future, you say you are charging £1.50 a window on a house but with 600 jobs on your rounds and a 50k turnover something just doesn't add up to me, I am not wanting to spook you at all, but undoubtedly changes will have to be made to ensure you are able benefit more from your business moving forward, hopefully you will be able find a solution and long term have more money in your pocket. ?

 

[laddergarder]

@laddergarder seems to me like your business is already split to a point in as much as your relative is out on his own doing assigned jobs, the only way to increase turnover and profit is to possibly kit both vans out with wfp as you will get through more jobs more efficiently and either franchise the business or look at selling off 250-300 jobs to your relative so he can go on his own.

This could be done under some form of contract were by he works the round(s) for say 12 months on his own and pays you in monthly instalments and at the end providing no breach of contract and full payment has been made the round(s) he has always worked will become his. 

If you are happy currently then that's great, but is your worker as he is doing the lions share of the work and who knows he may think differently in the future, you say you are charging £1.50 a window on a house but with 600 jobs on your rounds and a 50k turnover something just doesn't add up to me, I am not wanting to spook you at all, but undoubtedly changes will have to be made to ensure you are able benefit more from your business moving forward, hopefully you will be able find a solution and long term have more money in your pocket. ?

He doesnt do the lions share of the work, we do the same number of customers each, roughly. 

I also didnt say I charge £1.50 per window on every job I have. What I said was I charge on average £1.50 pw on new jobs. But my true average is around £1.10 pw. I do have as I am sure most do, a few old accounts that are a bit under priced.

I appreciate your advice. I have used water fed poles for a few years along side trad. For me I prefer trad. I still have a backpack in one of the vans. But I wont be replacing it.

 

[Iron Giant]

He doesnt do the lions share of the work, we do the same number of customers each, roughly. 

I also didnt say I charge £1.50 per window on every job I have. What I said was I charge on average £1.50 pw on new jobs. But my true average is around £1.10 pw. I do have as I am sure most do, a few old accounts that are a bit under priced.

I appreciate your advice. I have used water fed poles for a few years along side trad. For me I prefer trad. I still have a backpack in one of the vans. But I wont be replacing it.

Fair do's, but you never know in the future and hopefully some of the advice given within this post from all of us will help you out. 

 

[mike007]

If your happy mate, you earn enough to live not survive and you aint killing yourself then fairplay.

 with

Only thing id say is, is it really worth having an employee?

You maybe aswell to sell him 1/2 or 1/3 of your round and let him go on his own.

Agree, as long as your happy. We window cleaners are not all in the business to grow bigger, have more vans on the road, employees working for us etc. Some of us are very happy being sole traders!!!.

Secret is being happy in your job. One of the reasons we work for ourselves is because we have drive and ambition, but that does not have to be reflected in building our businesses as large as possible for the mere sake of it.

Remember at the end of the day why you became  self employed in the window cleaning world?.Many of us have been in well paid Manegerial and other roles, getting well paid, having certain amount of financial stability, yet we opted to get out of the "rat race". Make sure your not making your business the same as being back in the "rat race" is my advise.

 

[kevinc250]

Agree, as long as your happy. We window cleaners are not all in the business to grow bigger, have more vans on the road, employees working for us etc. Some of us are very happy being sole traders!!!.

Secret is being happy in your job. One of the reasons we work for ourselves is because we have drive and ambition, but that does not have to be reflected in building our businesses as large as possible for the mere sake of it.

Remember at the end of the day why you became  self employed in the window cleaning world?.Many of us have been in well paid Manegerial and other roles, getting well paid, having certain amount of financial stability, yet we opted to get out of the "rat race". Make sure your not making your business the same as being back in the "rat race" is my advise.

very wise words there mike

 

[adamangler]

50k a year with an employee on 17k is shocking business. 

25k left for yourself. You would be better off working on your own and having a big price rise. If you lose 100 customers so what. 

All the hassle of employing for 13k a year salary you must be mad. 

If you are paying him 17k you should be at the Vat threshold to make it worthwhile. 

 

[A.K WINDOWS]

Im glad your happy with what you have but a few small tweaks would make things better for you,
 

I think your problem lies within your pricing , they must be cheap houses and I don’t think pricing per window is a good idea .

If my maths are right your houses are well under £10 each? This should be a min fee you work for.
 

You would be best of upping cleaning 400-450 customers a month on your own  and sell the rest off .... or put a £1 increase on your 300 per month that would give you a £3600 rise straight away before deductions.

i would also knock any collecting on the head  to reduce costs/time.

Personally I don’t think you earn enough for 2 people and 2 vans , you have the volume in customers but not in revenue, I turn 50k over on 285 customers and there is just me .

waterfed pole is your friend use it for top windows at least , I was a ladder man for years I’d never go back to it . Wfp is safer faster and just as good as long as your water is bang on .

hope this helps 

 

[cleaniac]

Just thought I'd interject here.

First and foremost, if you are employing someone and paying them over 10k a year, you must make sure you have complied with automatic enrolment of pensions. If you haven't you can be fined eye watering amounts of fines, the average being £10k. 

Second, to have 600 customers and be turning over £50k a year, that's priced far too low, and is the main reason you can't grow. The numbers are just not adding up. You are wasting time and money employing someone, and exposing yourself to the issues of automatic enrolment of pensions as mentioned above (assuming you haven't enrolled)

If you are a sole trader, and you are employing someone on a sub contract basis (they do thier own tax), and the majority of their time is spent working for you, HMRC can argue and deifne them as employee's which could mean a masive employers ni bill, and back taxes to pay for you should they do a random investigation,  and they do because they did one on me years back.

If you are sole trader, and your sub contractor is working for you as above, your public liability insurance will be invalid, as his will be too. Most of the time public liability for sole traders only covers direct work with the customer of the sole trader, so it would cover him working for you if he was to injure you the business owner, but not to the third party which is what it is for. Make sure your policy covers third partys in connection with the business between you.

You are exposed on so many levels here..

My opinion would be double your prices, drop your sub contractor. Go ltd, and replace those customers at the new prices, employee him.on paye and register for automatic enrolment if you are paying him more than 10k.a year.

Just my opinion here, so..