Well, after running through several models in Excel, interviewing many, I have finally hired a newbie for the shop. I made do for a long time on my own, but now am getting slammed with alot more work in the door.

We primarily do manufacturing of high performance parts for other companies, so our customer base is so far only 3 people; the owners of the companies I manufacture for, which means little time is spent with customer phone calls.

The employee I hired is green in fabrication, but is a fantastic hard worker, and even hangs out after work for a few hours on his own time to practice TIG welding (I told him how much TIG welder's can make, that was motivation enough$$$). I started him at $8/hour for a few weeks, to feel him out.

This is enough for me for now, but We are suddenly getting huge $$$ and quantity orders in, and I need to know what I should do to keep up. I have limited my buyers already, but apparently people are liking what I'm building (yay for me) and more people want it.

Hire another welder? Spend more time in the shop on top of my normal 90 hours a week? I spend more time prototyping parts for production than I do doing the actual production work.

I am just looking for some insight, that's all. Sorry if my post was very scattered.

 

congratulations, i think you should have hired someone who already knows how to tig weld and fabricate, hiring someone that needs teaching when things are picking up is going to slow down your production.

 

Do the math. If you can hire an experienced employee and just point them at what needs to be done, without spending time supervising, and you can make good margins with their cost - do it. Also, factor in what the most valuable use of your own time is. Every hour you spend telling someone how to do something or doing it yourself is an hour not spent looking at the big picture , lining up new opportunities. or otherwise being as productive as you should be in your role as manager/leader.

I have run several profitable ad agencies and the cost structure of that business was a very, very hard learning environment. I got very good at figuring out what I could pay people based on what they could produce (how I could bill their time) and learned fast that the best solutions were the ones that left me free to do what I needed to do to make the most money (bigger picture). And, it was NEVER profitable for me to get too hands-on with specific, routine-type projects.

Best of luck with your endeavor.

 

That was the plan, however I was afraid. Besides that, trying to find someone who is good enough to leave alone and doesn't want $25/hour is tough. I am still considering trying to find someone, but I can only afford someone @ $15/hour right now. Is this low-balling for someone who will basically be a bench welder?

Top Ramen, I appreciate the advice, it has simply reassured me of what I already knew. It was tough enough for me to bite the bullet to do this. MAybe I should just find a fabricator who is willing to work part time to start? I just don't want to commit to something I potentially can't afford.

 

I think there are guys out there that are capable TIG welders willing to work for that rate. Guys without any type of cert's will generally take that pay.

I was in a similar position and took on a noob, but *** buster as well. He's a hard worker but has made two MAJOR mistakes thus far that could've costed me big. Saving a few dollars isn't gonna pay off if you eat something big as a result.

The time it takes him to become capable as a TIG welder is gonna be pretty high, at least as far as my standards are concerned. My guy is an experience MIG welder that can lay MIG beads with the best of them, but TIG opened his eyes. He thought it'd be a cakewalk and realized quickly it isn't so simple.

Best thing you can do is bust your *** and see how he works out. It's hard as the only core fab guy though. A hard working wrencher is nice, but if the majority of your business is fab, it'd make more sense from a growth perspective to lighten some of the fab load and stop turning away business.

 

Couple thoughts:

Make sure to get workman's compensation before you get too carried away with employees. If somebody gets hurt, they won't just come after your business assets, they will come after you and your family if you don't have it.

Don't pay anyone under the table. An auditor will eat you alive for this, and they will find it regardless of how far back they have to go.

 

Good advice from CRMB ^^

The secret to growth, sub out everything that you can, and still resell for a higher margin. Break your assembly down into pieces parts, ensure no one else has your whole product/assembly. Look for the long term. After a year or so, squeeze suppliers for margin and raise prices a bit. That should be a windfall. Rinse and repeat.

Use your time, creativity and talent to develop new products, line up vendors and sell, sell sell...

 

If you have the work to do, and can manage a business, employees are the best thing you can do. You can only make so much money yourself.

From my experience, you're MUCH better off to pay somebody who's good, good money rather than pay somebody who doesn't know what they're doing min. wage. You won't make any extra money if you're constantly over the new guys shoulder showing him how it should be and/or fixing problems created by the new guy.

Someone once told me "hire monkeys and you'll be slipping on the bananna peels they leave behind".

You have to have good people behind you to run a successful business.

 

the monkeys title was great.

 

I see your points. I will keep the monkey around, he's quite the badass. I have messed around a bit with models and whatnot, I know my business very well, so I understand alot of it, but it's clearly not enough to help me feel secure enough to make the decision.

Luckily, there is a trade school nearby, I'll hit there first to see if I can find a "ringer"...


By the way, you guys are awesome

 

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When we say to hire someone good, you have to have context. Really think about the type of work you need done and the skill set required. Hire to that level. If it is simple and you can turn them loose after a day or two of getting them set up, great. If it is constantly changing custom fab work that requires enough experience to solve problems and handle different challenges, then hire a person who is good enough to figure things out without you spoon-feeding them.

Tony makes a good point. Be honest with yourself about the type of work you need done and hire to that level. Figuring out if you can mark up their cost and bill it is just math. If they are productive and you can keep them busy, how much they cost is almost irrelevant - how much they make you is the only number that really matters. I had guys in my company that cost me $20 an hour that I billed through at $25 an hour. I also had guys that cost me $45 an hour that I billed out at $95 an hour - guess which ones I liked better? ; )