An Email about employees and getting caught in the rain:

Hi Steve

Thanks for the info.

I already check with the state and it looks like I’m exempt for the time being.  If I hire a full time employee, then I think I have to start paying into it.

When you contracted employees from Stall Leasing, were you able to get employees with window washing experience or did you have to train them?

I know this is a dumb question, but I going to ask it anyway <G>. What did you do if you got halfway through a job and it started raining?  After it stopped, did you go back over the windows you already did, or did you just continue from where you left off?  I would be inclined to just continue where I left of but I don’t know how the customers would react. 

Regards

Dave

My Response:

Hi Dave:

Are you referring to being exempt from work comp?  Yeah…you can usually exempt yourself.  But some States require work comp with as little as one employee, so it sounds like you’re in one of those States.  Bring ‘em on slowly, make sure you have the work for them, and you’ll have no probs paying into work comp.  The work is there and so are the profits. 

It was actually "Staff Leasing".  This isn’t a place like Manpower or an employment agency. I didn’t find people through them. I found my own people (through colleges, through personal recommendations) and then put them under the Staff Leasing umbrella strictly for the paperwork/tax stuff.

I still had to do the training and all the other needed employee stuff.  So they were my people.  Staff just took care of the payment part of it.

If it started raining halfway through a job, I usually continued on.  I didn’t want to pack up and come back.  Waste of time.  So if I was outside, I moved my operation inside.  If it rained really hard and the inside was already completed, then I’d try and wait ’til it was over or let up a little bit.  Now if it was raining hard before I even started my day, then I would call my customers and reschedule. 

I didn’t start the day in the rain, but if it started in the middle of jobs, as mentioned earlier, I didn’t want to come back if I could help it.

My work week consisted of cleaning windows mon. through thursday.  Friday was estimating.  Saturday morning was heavy flyer distribution.  Sunday was off.  But if I needed to, I could take any of my 3 days where I don’t normally clean windows, and stick in a rescheduled job or two.  So there is some leeway there.  Once I had people working for me, it was pretty easy to reschedule though.  Simply juggle people and jobs around to fit in the rescheduled job.  

Oh…as far as customer reaction?  I didn’t find that they had any problems for the most part.  If you continue to clean the windows in the rain, you’re still getting the windows cleaned.  So it’s not like your work is for nothing.  Also keep in mind that generally there are eaves around the house. 

So unless the rain is really pouring down hard, you can even continue on the outside when it’s raining.  I did all the time.  A few raindrops won’t make us melt and the windows will still be getting clean as I mentioned.  And this helped me avoid having to change my methods like moving inside and then back outside again.  It’s all about time, and having to move in/move back out again just wasted time. 

Take care for now.  Have a good weekend.

Regards,

Steve

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