self employed and expanding, trusting employees?

im considering expanding since right now its only me, and im turning down work... only problem is i would have to hire someone to service a 2nd event.

how do you make the jump into trusting someone with your business name on the line in an industry where service/image means alot?? 1 bad experience could really hurt.

 

check references.

come up with a test for the prospect to make sure he/she has the skills you seek.

 

ya i feel ya. I had a cell phone accessory kiosk in the mall in 06 and wanted to expand. The closest location to me available was 2 hours away. We spent a month interviewing and getting this place setup. Had a good crew. After 2 months our main manager quit for a job she had been on a list for and left us screwed. We struggled for another year (some of it me driving there 2 times a week!). Anyways, no one will run your business like you. skip a few years i got into cell phone repairs and into a 2100 sq ft building of my own and business is awesome. I really want to expand to a location an hour from here but im scared/scarred lol

 

the problem is its servicing weddings (about 90% of events anyways).

client service and personal image means ALOT. 1 bad event and 200-700 people know about it off the bat.

as a test i guess i would have to have the person with me at events as training, but i dont want to invest in equipment, then double book, and not have anyone when the time comes.

 

Trust but verify their work.

And beware employees that will realize that they can leave you, light out on their own, and make better money doing it for themselves.

 

For your line of work I wouldn't do it. The business is you and your reputation. The work that you get is referred to you by YOUR reputation. If you want to expand the only way that I would do it would be to have a partner, this way they share in the expenses and exposure. Hiring someone as an employee gives them no incentive to work as you have to establish and keep your reputation. Like you said, if they bail on a wedding when you're double booked, you're screwed.

 

...stealing your customer list in the process....

These last few posts are right on. Be very wary hiring "friends." It can turn out ok, but it can also cause big problems when it comes to professional expectations. It can be difficult holding them accountable when you're expected to "be cool." Depending on the person, that can be fine...or it can cause resentment (deserved or not!). I ran into exactly that problem in the past, and it cost me dearly.

I think the best advice is to hire someone and work with them for some months until you're comfortable. Also, make sure that if they don't work out, you have a relatively easy (yet fair) exit strategy for them. You don't want to be stuck with someone you know is either sloppy, stealing or otherwise not representing your work.

What you do NOT want to do is bring someone in that you don't know VERY well as a partner. Although they might have the same grasp of expenses, etc. as you do, if they have different financial expectations, or otherwise turn out to be a bad partner, getting rid of them might turn out to be painful and expensive (ask me how I know!!). What you really need on the back side of any hire is flexibility. Flexibility to reward them if they turn out to be the rockstar employee, and flexibility to fire them if they don't.

 

I think you would struggle to keep people on. They would make more money on their own and will figure that out pretty quickly.

If you have a good client base/contacts like it sounds you do, that might be a benefit for people starting out to latch onto and build their portfolio.

I would find people that do great work, let them know you have a great rep and won't lose it and this will benefit them and make them sign some sort of doc stating they will work for you for X amount of time, and if not they can't compete until that time period is up.

 

jeff u got a pm

 

Unfortunately, you can't do that. Not only is that practically unenforceable in this case, but although non-compete agreements can work as intended, they by law cannot prevent someone from earning their living.

 

My outside opinion, but my profession is a bit similar in that I'm in charge for the creative "image" of my firm, you'd be better off hiring someone and teaching them to do Post-processing for you.

That will allow you to keep the face time with the clients while still maintaining productivity.

 

Generally they have a radius attached to them, and I'm aware they are hard to enforce and more costly then they are worth...But for someone doing part time work as a wedding photog I'd bet they just honor it as opposed to creating any unneeded risk.

Also, I'm not a lawyer...

 

I've been self-employed for 20 years, and i've worked hard to build and maintain my reputation. I've looked at expanding a few times, but never found anyone i trusted enough to sign my name on their work. A few times it would have been great to have more income, but in the end, the extra expense and stress didn't justify it. For the last year or so, with business so slow, there's no way i would have made enough to pay two people. Occasionally, I'll get my brother to help me out (He's been in the same business as long as i have), but i've pretty much decided that the work i can handle myself is enough to fill my needs, and it's much better to turn a little work away than to risk the damage someone else's mistake could cause.

 

Kinda in the same boat. Could use the help around the shop but I seriously dont trust anyone. Everyone who I think is semi-trustworthy turns out to be a thief. Had a couple of really good people who wanted to work part time lined up and found out they were stealing from their employer and selling stuff out the back door.

 

That's a great idea..although at that point they'd be a cost center rather than a profit center. Of course, if that frees you up to go after more clients, that might not be true.

Not a bad idea to run some numbers and see how much additional revenue / profit you'd have to generate in order to cover an additional production employee, and then project how much additional business you think you could muster...and see how they compare.

 

My dad never hired any full-time employees. He didn't want to worry about trusting someone, maintaining the quality of work, reliability and making sure he could provide for them if/when business was slow.

When he gets busy, he contracts trusted help for specific jobs.

 

They might honor it...or it might backfire. But, if it's someone you don't know, it'd might be worth it.

The main thing I'd want to do is control the customer list. Someone who is going to steal from you is going to figure out a way how (ask me how I know), but if you can control the customer list (password protected file maybe?) than you can perhaps limit the damage.

 

you said the funniest dam thing "Trusting Employees" LOL. Here's a simple answer don't. Most employees end up thinking your screwing them, so they want want want, take take take. I have around 20-25 employees plus a few contractors. Honestly, if you want to trust one, you must do a background check, legal, and then have them shadow you so they clearly understand what makes your business better than the competition. They clearly understand it, and of course they must drink your kool aid. Then maybe just maybe you can start to give them small jobs.

 

If you have more business than you can handle another option is to raise your pricing.