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Feeling Stuck in the Busy-But-Broke Zone – How Did You Break Through?
Hey folks, I’m hoping to get some insight from those of you who’ve already muscled through this phase of business. I’m currently in that painful zone where the jobs are coming in steady—so much so that I’m completely maxed out—but the numbers aren’t quite adding up to confidently bring someone else on board. I’ve got the workflow, the drive, and the service quality dialed in, but when it comes to scaling by hiring help, I feel like I’m staring at a wall I can’t quite climb. The catch-22 is real: can’t afford help without more time, and can’t get more time without help. For those of you who made it past this threshold: - What did you do to shift the equation? - How did you find the confidence (or capital) to invest in that first team member? - Any creative pricing or scheduling tactics that helped balance the load in the meantime? Appreciate any stories, hard-learned lessons, or nuggets of advice. Trying to work smarter, not just harder.Seeking Advice on Hiring – Best Practices?
Hi everyone, I’m currently exploring the best way to approach hiring for my business, Mr. Backflow. As things grow, I’m finding it challenging to balance hands-on service with the increasing demand — and I want to make sure I bring someone on in a way that’s smart, sustainable, and aligned with my brand. I’d love to hear from those of you who’ve hired technicians or field staff: What worked well for you when hiring your first employee? Did you use a recruiter, job board, or referrals? Any tips on onboarding, training, or setting expectations? I’m especially interested in keeping the quality of service high while making sure the person fits our customer-first, community-driven approach. Appreciate any insights or stories you’re willing to share!
Time Clock / Employee Time Tracking
Hey all! We have approximately 20-25 W2 employees who clock in and out using the ADP app. Processing payroll has recently been a hassle due to time discrepancies. Adjusting time cards for each employee is not only time-consuming but can be very costly if things are missed over time. What have you found to help with maintaining accurate time cards for employees? Please paste the link to any hardware you use. I'd love to see what systems you all use for employees to clock in physically instead of over the cell phone.
Creating Teams In Team Management
Good day to all, I wanted to see if this is something that Jobber is planning on implementing anytime in the very near future. For those of us that run a landscape company we typically run in teams. As of right now, it appears that things are a little harder than it should be, just personal opinion. Here is the scenario: Current: Every employee has their own app where they clock in and clock out, that's great. However, If you are running a team of 2 or 3 personnel, each member not only has to clock in, but has to start a timer and stop a timer at each and every job site. This becomes a nightmare when it's time to approve times. For those of us in this industry, I think you feel this pain as well. I'm sure you've figured a work around, but at the sacrifice of not knowing your true job cost in labor. Idea..... Future: In team management, create teams, this is where a company can have multiple teams, example Alpha team, Bravo team. Alpha team has 3 men on the crew and Bravo has 4 men on the crew. Each team is assigned a day's schedule and a team leader. The team leader would be responsible for starting and stopping time at each work site. While the employee all they need to do is clock in and clock out. There are other platforms that run this script and drastically improves time spent on the computer sorting through everyone's timesheets. This would be an exponential improvement on the contractor's side of things. What are your thoughts?
Pay for performance in Lawn Care and Landscaping - has anyone been successful?
I know this has been talked about many times, but I'm thinking about re-visiting this option. How have you structured your pay for performance when you have crews that do totally different things? For example- we have some crews that just do lawn maintenance (bi-weekly grass cutting, weed eating, etc), and other crews that do 'projects' (french drains, hardscapes, etc). And some guys that float between the different crews. My brain cannot conceive metrics that would be equitable for both groups. Would we have a different set of metrics for each type of crew? A different set for the grass cutting crew vs the projects crew? What are some examples of metrics that you have successfully used? How did you measure or track them? I think I'm just 'stuck' on how to even get started. I've looked at so many conversations on this that my brain is in overload. Can someone give me a hand here? Can I just see your metrics? Help. Please.Do You Train Your Team to Think or Just Work?
Every Monday, we hold a short training session with our team. We train on communication. leadership. & mindset. The reason being most tradespeople aren’t struggling because they can’t do the work. They’re struggling because they were never taught how to: Speak with clarity Handle conflict Lead a crew Represent the business professionally These tend to be the issues I see bottling up, either from our exit interviews or customer feed back or when things are misunderstood. Thats why I'm curious: Do you train soft skills with your crew?Hiring Your First Employee – What Held You Back or Pushed You Forward?
For me when I started the business, which I never thought about actually starting a business, hiring my first employee was easy as we did cleaning. I hired friends and family (so backfired - this is another discussion :) and never thought about how to do it and why, I just was being referred and for me this was the next step. Having said this how did you do it? How did you hire your first employee and what were your criterias? Did you look at your numbers and see - yeah I can afford someone? Or was it more like I don't think I can do this alone? How long ago was this? How much have you grown since then? Love to hear all your experiences!Hiring the Right People!
Finding and Keeping Skilled Workers in the Trades Finding good help is tough, especially in the trades. What’s your approach to hiring people who not only have the skills, but also fit well with your team? And once you’ve got the right people, how do you keep them motivated and loyal to your business? Let’s talk about hiring techniques and retention.
