staff

[CalgaryDetail]

Myself and my partner have been talking to a potential investor (its not like a regular investor and I can divulge any infromation as of yet.. more to come). With this we need to prepare a business plan. Involved is section for staffing. (if all goes as plan we will need staff in 6 months to a year.. again no details sorry)
We have been going through a couple options such as a per car, a percetage of sales, an hourly wage, or a combination. We have yet to decide on one.

The point of this thread is to ask what, those who own shops, do with there staff. What options would you suggest that have worked for you.

Right now i can divulge any more info as eveything is in a very prelimb stage. i promise more info to come. And i know the whole investor thing but its a "special" set up that again will I will let you know once the kinks are irion out
Thank you for any information you may have

-Mike

[TrueDetailer]

This doesn`t really help you any but its just my 2 cents. Personaly i wouldn`t bring in an investor. We`re talking about a detailing business here not a multi million dollar business adventure. If you can`t get enough repeat business and save the money up to do whatever your wanting to in this business you shouldn`t be detailing. More details would probably help. What are you going to open up a big fancy detailing shop with multiple bays? Or maybe a do-it-yourself place? Why not try to take a loan out. Having another partner/investor just takes away from your pocket even more.

[TrueDetailer]

This doesn`t really help you any but its just my 2 cents. Personaly i wouldn`t bring in an investor. We`re talking about a detailing business here not a multi million dollar business adventure. If you can`t get enough repeat business and save the money up to do whatever your wanting to in this business you shouldn`t be detailing. More details would probably help. What are you going to open up a big fancy detailing shop with multiple bays? Or maybe a do-it-yourself place? Why not take a loan out. Having another partner/investor just takes away from your pocket even more.

[CalgaryDetail]

This doesn`t really help you any but its just my 2 cents. Personaly i wouldn`t bring in an investor. We`re talking about a detailing business here not a multi million dollar business adventure. If you can`t get enough repeat business and save the money up to do whatever your wanting to in this business you shouldn`t be detailing. More details would probably help. What are you going to open up a big fancy detailing shop with multiple bays? Or maybe a do-it-yourself place? Why not try to take a loan out. Having another partner/investor just takes away from your pocket even more.

Ok well i guees details are needed. All this information is still very up in the air.
As many of you know my shop is locted in a coin was (works well) and the owner of the wash is the father of my partner so we get a free space to use and it works well. We actully get a number of clients just from the wash. Recently my partner was robbed (no one was hurt luckly, they took off with some cash and a computer nothing big compared to a life) so his had has been thinking about secuirty. The best solution this far has been a double staff system. The problem is what do yoou do with 2 staff mebers at a car wash. My partner sugested we start detailing more. Have a detailer on hand doing that while someone runs the wash, therefor you would have 2 people working and making money.
We then came up with a prolem of how do we get more cars. My partner (btw since he still lives at home he talks to his dad so all this was within a few days so oI just heard of it tonight) talked to many loca dealerships, we got a ton of info and we have 5 or 6 dealerships sending us a car to sample so they can get an idea of what out work is like (they agreed to pay us without us even asking so it works well)
We then run into a few problems. The first is chemicals. Thats alot of chemicals. And the sconed is staff.
Chemicals and insurance will be worked out between us (we have it set up and thats not relevent to the thread)
so back to staff, we are both in school and cannot work during the week. We thusly would hire a person to detail during the week (with lots and lots of training dont worry about that, they will be up to my standards).. keep in mind this is still a ways away

So with this money his father will be investing into the company. He wants a small business plan to look over the numbers. One of those numbers is ofcourse staff. The qustion now becomes do we want to put him on a wah emplyee or a detail empylee.. (agin there are some issues that we will work out such as licenicing and what not),... so how do we pay him?

Anyway this investor would take a portion of each car (say 30 bucks.. just as an example) he would be silent. His share of the money would be to cover the cost of chemicals, insuracne and any other adminstrative over haed such as he books. he dosent want to make a profit, instead just break even. This is more of wat to keep eveyone safe without loosing money

So its kinda complicted, and theres more to the story but i think this will help. And agin this is in the very prelim. stages. I will explain more as more is worked out.. and yes it is a weird araigment but w.e works I guees

thanks you

-mike

[WindSwords]

What you pay employees, first and foremost, has to be what your business can afford. You cannot simply pull out of the air a figure like 25% unless you know that you can afford this labor factor.

If you want your employee`s to work smarter and waste less time, pay them a a percentage then they are not going to slak and waste time because no matter how long it takes them to do a detail they are going to get paid the same.

If you want to provide some type of incentive program it must be based on performance. What I suggest you look at is a variation of the Flat Rate System employed by the auto repair and collision repair industries.

How that works is an employee is paid so much per hour based on their experience; tenure and work ethic and value to the company.

You then take each and every job performed in the shop (the times are just for illustration, you will have to assign these, and what you assign for each task may be adjusted for the employees experience and the equipment you have):

Carwash 30 min
Engine Clean 30 min
Exterior Prep for Detail 45 min
Trunk Clean & Shampoo 30 min
Complete Interior Shampoo and Clean 90 min
Buff; Polish; Wax 90 min
Wax only 30 min
Polish and Wax 30 min
Carpet Shampoo 30 min

Assign a time to the job as indicated above. If a worker gets $7.00 per hour he would get paid $3.50 for a carwash or $10.50 for a complete interior clean and shampoo.

The motivation of this program is that if they finish in 15 min they still get paid for 30, or if they finish the complete interior in 60 minutes they still get paid for 90 min. That is the flat rate system. Any reworks they have to do because an inspection found it was not up to standards or a customer is not satisfied (within reason) is "free labor". That will make sure it`s done right the first time.

Or, you may find that guys would rather have paid time off. So if they finish 8 hours work in 6.5 hours you pay them for 8 and let them get off work early. A lot of workers would prefer to get off early than get more money. Money is not, as you might believe, the biggest or only motivator.

But, be sure to know what your business can afford to pay for labor.

[CalgaryDetail]

Great thank you very much for that info, that is a great idea. I know i cant set a magic number right now, and i know we will have to see how business like I said. However we need a quick plan in the next couple weeks and that was an issue he wants us to adress. Thank you for the info

[MagicCity33]

That was some good information WindSword. I`m going to look into this system myself as my clientele continues to increase.

Thanks

[sneek]

great I have to be the jerk.

I am not so sure about the flat rate thing. Some cars take more work than others eg. black cars with really hard or soft paint. So how could you set times for all cars?

Moreover if you pay your detailers a flat rate they *may* do a crappy job (cough cough Canadian Tire) As you said before you and your partner are going to school at MRC, so who will inspect the work? Also how do you plan on getting employees? If Costco is paying upwards or $19/hr can you afford you pay your detailers a competitive wage?

Anyway this investor would take a portion of each car (say 30 bucks.. just as an example) he would be silent. His share of the money would be to cover the cost of chemicals, insuracne and any other adminstrative over haed such as he books. he dosent want to make a profit, instead just break even. This is more of wat to keep eveyone safe without loosing money

This is just a shot in the dark but I am going to guess that your partner`s father just wants to teach his son a little something about business. I am not really sure how serious his father is about this whole deal, I am guessing that this would last a year at most. Is your partner talking business at MRC?

[CalgaryDetail]

great I have to be the jerk.

I am not so sure about the flat rate thing. Some cars take more work than others eg. black cars with really hard or soft paint. So how could you set times for all cars?

Moreover if you pay your detailers a flat rate they *may* do a crappy job (cough cough Canadian Tire) As you said before you and your partner are going to school at MRC, so who will inspect the work? Also how do you plan on getting employees? If Costco is paying upwards or $19/hr can you afford you pay your detailers a competitive wage?

and yes we are bothing taking business





This is just a shot in the dark but I am going to guess that your partner`s father just wants to teach his son a little something about business. I am not really sure how serious his father is about this whole deal, I am guessing that this would last a year at most. Is your partner talking business at MRC?

We haveyet to devide what we can pay empoyees, We will look further into the in the future. We wil also devise a quility contor method. Like i said that a few monhs to a year away.. but liie i said we need a "general" idea now..nothing set in stone

As for if he is serious.. very much so. He has been supporting us from day one. He hands out alot of our cards as well as supplies the shop for free. He has aleady called his insurane broken to find out what extra insurance we need and the cost. I know it seems a buit weird but its legit. I think he just wants to help two young entrpuners out... he was one many years ago and still is.

[WindSwords]

Sneek,

You`re not being a jerk. As long as it`s constructive, criticism is good. I think the point you are making is that no system is perfect and it requires someone to monitor and manage it. That`s why I mentioned that "redo`s" are "off the clock" because it means that the employee didn`t perform properly. Since this will directly affect his bottom line ($) then the problem should be self-correcting. If it isn`t then you as manager should first look at the employees training and procedures to make sure he knows what he`s supposed to do and the proper way to do it. If that isn`t the problem then it may be time to terminate the employee.

As for black cars, SUV`s, trashed minivans, etc., you will need to fine tune for those types of situations. What you should end up with is a system where some vehicles are finished ahead of time, some are finished late, but the majority are finished within the allotted time, with a very small percentage needing a "redo".

[WindSwords]

I forgot to mention that you can "spice" your plan with all sorts of incentive bonuses for things like upselling services, long term contracts for washing and detailing (like prepaying a year and getting a discount for weekly washes and 2 full details).

You can come up with all kinds of performance bonuses, like fewest number of "redo`s", or volume of cars done within a certain timeframe. Just use your imagination.

Rewards could be cash, time off with pay, or some kind of gift (movie tickets, gift certificate for restaurants, malls, etc.).

[derek37]

make sure someone proof reads your business plan.