Hiring staff or not

[swellstays]

Up

0

::

Hi all,

Hoping you can help me with a dilemma I’ve had for about 5 years now (I know!)

I own and run a holiday management business that has really taken off in the last 2 years. I’ve got great systems in place and work about 4 to 5hrs a day max. I can easily handle the work load myself however, I need to be available 24/7. This is not a problem until we go away on holidays. We used to go camping in remote areas but unfortunately I need to have phone reception at all times. We’ve done a few trips where I’ve had friends helping me out but this is not ideal and I stress that much about them making a mistake that I might as well stay home. My idea of owning a business is to be free to go where ever / whenever and this is not the case for me.

Now that I’m going to be a new mum in 6 months time, I need to come up with a plan.

If I was to hire someone, I can give that person about 20hrs per week as there are quite a few things he/she can do to help grow the business that I should do but don’t. I don’t think it’s fair to pay someone for 20hrs per week and then ask that person to be available 24/7

The only thing I can think of is getting someone to buy into the business and share the responsibilities but since I’m a bit of a control freak, I’m wondering if this will work.

Would love to hear from you guys!

[Paul – FS Concierge]

Up

0

::

Hi And Welcome to the Forums. It is great to have you!

Thank you for joining Flying Solo and posting today.

“The only thing I can think of is getting someone to buy into the business and share the responsibilities but since I’m a bit of a control freak,

Congrats on your success. A good set of policies and procedures could even out some personality differences if any arrive.

Popping an ad on Gumtree will give you a pretty good idea around who is out there and will help you to determine a way forward eg, if there are people who have run similar businesses and just want to have a part time interest now.

You can also have a night security service perform a lot of tasks for you. Eg, if checking in after xpm, ring this number and the night security service would have a record of their booking and direct them to a lock box with their key in it.

Just some ideas.

Cheers

[Fredy Namdin]

Up

0

::

Hi,

As I read through your post I’m reminded of my own joy (and issues) with staffs.

A couple of things crossed my mind, seems like your main issue is the 24/7 phone reception:

1. Have you considered redirecting the call?
2. In the case of international holiday, redirecting the call might be a bit difficult. An alternative is to have a message bank that you can access off-site so you can return the call.
3. I imagine you probably need to work with your booking system, etc on-site. Any possibility of moving those into a cloud based services? That means you can access them from anywhere in the world as long as there’s internet connection.

Getting solutions to the above points with a handy 20hrs casual/part time staff might help a great deal.

All the best!

[elissa.doxey]

Up

0

::

Congratulations! You’re going to have a fairly busy (and possibly tiring!) time ahead, so it’d be great to get someone on board sooner than later.

There’s a couple of ways you could approach it.
You could offer to go into a partnership with the right person by having them effectively ‘buy into’ it, but you’d want to be dead sure that it is someone you can trust and can work with longterm. I wouldn’t suggest that until you’ve worked alongside them for a year or two, to be honest.

The other option is to offer employment on a salary basis, which can take into account out-of-hours work, but you’d need to check if that’s allowable under your particular industry sector.

You’d probably be surprised just how popular a flexible 20-hr working week arrangement might be – particularly for mums who want to get back into the workforce, so don’t underestimate the value of flexibility versus occasional out-of-hours time.

All the best,
Elissa

[LLB Accountants]

Up

0

::

swellstays, post: 244664, member: 92167 wrote:

Hi all,

Hoping you can help me with a dilemma I’ve had for about 5 years now (I know!)

I own and run a holiday management business that has really taken off in the last 2 years. I’ve got great systems in place and work about 4 to 5hrs a day max. I can easily handle the work load myself however, I need to be available 24/7. This is not a problem until we go away on holidays. We used to go camping in remote areas but unfortunately I need to have phone reception at all times. We’ve done a few trips where I’ve had friends helping me out but this is not ideal and I stress that much about them making a mistake that I might as well stay home. My idea of owning a business is to be free to go where ever / whenever and this is not the case for me.

Now that I’m going to be a new mum in 6 months time, I need to come up with a plan.

If I was to hire someone, I can give that person about 20hrs per week as there are quite a few things he/she can do to help grow the business that I should do but don’t. I don’t think it’s fair to pay someone for 20hrs per week and then ask that person to be available 24/7

The only thing I can think of is getting someone to buy into the business and share the responsibilities but since I’m a bit of a control freak, I’m wondering if this will work.

Would love to hear from you guys!

Hi There,

Its quite an interesting situation you have there.

Allow me to introduce ourselves. Basically, we are an Accounting firm based in Sydney. We never had to be in your situation.

This is what we think. During our initial phase of setting up our business, we hired people on a casual basis in an attempt to grow our business. We told them that we were a start up business and we needed extra help to grow. However, we learnt very fast that this method does not work. These people that we took on treated it like a 9-5 job. We could not really blame that for that. No one really understand the sacrifices that a business owner makes. In any case, hiring people to grow your business will not work. They will never invest as much effort as you would like them to put in.

What we find works is…..if you hire somebody, BUT… you give some shares in your company to them. In that way, they now become a stakeholder rather than just an “employee” and they have a vested interest for YOUR business to succeed.

We hope that makes sense.

Regards,
LLB Accountants

http://www.linleobeak.com

[Byron Trzeciak]

Up

0

::

I’m in a similar position at the moment, one advice that I’ve heard frequently is that you’re not looking for 10/10’s for your business – that’s what you are in terms of how much you care and want your business to do well.

When it comes to hiring you’re looking for 7/8s, people who are passionate and really enjoy the work and love working for your company. When you find these people you support them through growth opportunities and salary and maybe at a point you could also provide them with shares in the company to ensure you can keep good talent.

I’d be very reluctant to provide shares in my company at this point unless I wanted someone at a high level to buy in and start growing the business with me.

The question is how do you find the 7/8’s out of 10 and how do you have the processes in place to allow them to do the job to your level of expectations without micro managing them. Maybe you need to try 3 month trials for all positions before approving full time roles.

[Lucy Kippist]

Up

0

::

LLB Accountants, post: 248474, member: 98884 wrote:

Hi There,

Its quite an interesting situation you have there.

Allow me to introduce ourselves. Basically, we are an Accounting firm based in Sydney. We never had to be in your situation.

This is what we think. During our initial phase of setting up our business, we hired people on a casual basis in an attempt to grow our business. We told them that we were a start up business and we needed extra help to grow. However, we learnt very fast that this method does not work. These people that we took on treated it like a 9-5 job. We could not really blame that for that. No one really understand the sacrifices that a business owner makes. In any case, hiring people to grow your business will not work. They will never invest as much effort as you would like them to put in.

What we find works is…..if you hire somebody, BUT… you give some shares in your company to them. In that way, they now become a stakeholder rather than just an “employee” and they have a vested interest for YOUR business to succeed.

We hope that makes sense.

Regards,
LLB Accountants

http://www.linleobeak.com

Byron Trzeciak, post: 248509, member: 56118 wrote:

I’m in a similar position at the moment, one advice that I’ve heard frequently is that you’re not looking for 10/10’s for your business – that’s what you are in terms of how much you care and want your business to do well.

When it comes to hiring you’re looking for 7/8s, people who are passionate and really enjoy the work and love working for your company. When you find these people you support them through growth opportunities and salary and maybe at a point you could also provide them with shares in the company to ensure you can keep good talent.

I’d be very reluctant to provide shares in my company at this point unless I wanted someone at a high level to buy in and start growing the business with me.

The question is how do you find the 7/8’s out of 10 and how do you have the processes in place to allow them to do the job to your level of expectations without micro managing them. Maybe you need to try 3 month trials for all positions before approving full time roles.

[Lucy Kippist]

Up

0

::

This is a great point Byron. A trial period actually makes a lot of sense from both perspectives because it allows breathing space. It should also mean you’re getting the best performance (hopefully) from a prospective employee because they feel they need to use the time to make their best impression. How has your position changed over the last couple of weeks?

[marchflower]

Up

0

::

To my mind, you can hire anybody for 20 hours and just pay extra money if a person has to take some extra hours.

[elissa.doxey]

Up

0

::

marchflower, post: 249271, member: 99064 wrote:

To my mind, you can hire anybody for 20 hours and just pay extra money if a person has to take some extra hours.

Just keep in mind that employing someone like this will need to take into account industry award and/or Fair Work national standards, and require a contract to be drawn up according to FWC guidelines on flexible working conditions, or else you’re delving into overtime issues.

Elissa

[Julia Sta Romana]

Up

0

::

It would be difficult to find someone who would be available 24/7, even if it in the end it will just amount to 4 to 5 hours a day.

I’m wondering whether scheduling would be a viable option for your business. Just so you (and the employee) don’t really have to be there 24/7. Do you think this system would work for your business?

[DinoA]

Up

0

::

Why don’t you try hiring offshore talent? They can definitely cover your booking requirements easily, while costing up to 60% lower than local hires.

Check out Kinetic, which provides offshore staffing from the Philippines.

[MikeDav]

Up

0

::

Have you thought about using virtual assistants or virtual receptionists to handle those calls? We have Australian based assistants who can handle a wide variety of tasks.

[noweshop]

Up

0

::

Maybe a professional company is needed to assist, so that it may have a better development.
JSC is a professional service company that assists foreign-invested enterprises in their business development. Our core service PEO and employment solutions enable foreign investors to hire employees without setting up any companies, thus enabling them to expand into the market in days instead of months. Our local experts in China are also experienced in assisting companies to establish their own legal entities in compliance.

[Ben]

Up

0

::

Personnel are of course needed to take care of their business completely, also working hands must be present so that you can safely think about expanding the business. If you want to earn more, you should think about it.

[Author]

Posts