Going from a one man band to managing a team Of electricians
Posted by: electime 9th March 2020
by Adam Loughrey from ADS Electrical – East Sussex Electricians
When you first start your electrical business, you will probably find yourself working solo for the first few months, and maybe even the first few years. However, once you start to get more clients you’ll soon find yourself in need of a few more hands to help deal with all of the work coming in.
Let’s take a look at how your business in the electrical industry will grow from a one man band to a full team of electricians, and how you can best manage that transition.
When starting out, you’re probably going to be managing a van, materials, and maybe a small office (but usually best to think about an office further down the line). At most, the cost to start will be in the £5000 mark given most industry estimates.
Starting any business from scratch can mean that it will take some time to get a reliable amount of clients every month. Most of your time may even be spent marketing and networking with other professionals.
As your a network grows and you prove yourself to the homeowners in the area and other related professionals (such as contractors, estate agents, and developers) you’ll find yourself getting more work than you can handle. You may even start having to turn down work in some cases. It’s at this point that you’ll need to consider expanding your business. You’ll also need to consider the future of your business and what you as an entrepreneur want from it.
When you set out to add new members to your team, you need to have a certain mindset in place. Figure out how many employees you need, and what you’ll be able to pay them. You’ll also need to figure out how much time you’ll need to train them in order to send them out on their own. All in all, you should start out trying to hire no more than two new employees. This will allow you to get a feel for hiring.
One major thing you should consider is making sure that all of the different benefits and perks are covered. Offer health insurance if possible, paid leave, sick days. And some vacation time. Likewise, you may need to buy a second van once you have the new employees fully trained. You should also consider investing in some business management software that can help track their progress while on the job.
Once your team grows big enough, you’ll need to consider hiring more electricians, as well as some management staff to help assist in the clerical duties that will come from having a larger workforce under your belt.
One major thing you should do at some point before you expand too much is to figure out what you want this business to be for you. While for some the idea is to grow as much as possible and make a lot of money on the way, that may not be what every business owner really wants. You may just want to have your own business without dealing with weird and obtuse things like CIS and pension payments and the different laws and regulations that come with managing employees.
It could be that you just enjoy the work that comes with being an electrician, and don’t want to be pulled away from that by becoming the head of a company. All of these are valid concerns that you should consider at some point while growing your business.
One last thing to consider while looking for help with your growing electrical business is to make sure you do plenty of background checks on the candidates. The last thing you need is for some sort of incident and accident to occur because the new employee has a history of drunkenness or drug use while on the job. You need to also make sure they have the proper certification and prior training. You will need to do some training with them, but you don’t want to start from scratch.
http://www.adselectrics.com
