I`m hiring someone full-time this week (I hope full-time). This is an economically depressed area, so I`ve gotten 20 resumes for a part-time leading to full-time ad that I made sound as unappealing as possible. I`m waiting on a grant possibility for a student; if I get that I`ll start there, but otherwise I need to choose.

There is actually a customer who applied, a car guy who does backyard mechanical work, fluids and brakes and stuff. There are 3 or 4 with a few months experience, so normally that`s where I`d start.

But I have an intriquing applicant. It is a competitor. He runs a detail shop out of a taxi garage (40 car operation) owned by his step-dad. He came to me and asked for the job.
I asked, "why?"
He said, "All I`m doing is brake jobs, shock work, and fluid changes. My step-dad thinks cleaning is all that is needed, and I want to detail cars, not just clean them."

Sounds obvious. I hire the guy who wants to work, shut down a competitor at the same time, and even get a handful of his clients in the process (which I would credit toward his salary).

But...

1. His shop isn`t all that busy, not really a threat. Most of his work is in the taxi maintenance.
2. He doesn`t have much buffing experience, or at least no confidence in it.
3. He smokes.
4. He is a little off.

#4 is the big one. It could be he has a bit of a speech impediment and isn`t a rapier intelligence. Or, he could be a little retarded in the technical sense. In either case, I`m not sure he is someone who can deal with clients when I`m on sales calls, which I intended to do 10-15 hours/week once I had him trained.

What do you guys think? Do you think it would be better to take a young guy with a couple months of lot work and who loves cars, then train him? Or should I go with the guy who only needs guidance, not training, but who isn`t the grittiest SSR on the shelf?

I can have my wife do customer service, an I`ll possibly have a second p/t guy/gal this summer and fall to help with customers.

I`m really stuck on this, and I have until Wednesday to decide.