By signcraft
Posted on Thursday, September 19th, 2024
A reader wants to know: “I often wonder where others find their employees. It seems I continually train new people who are going to school and then, after a year or two, they go on to the professions they went to school for. Online employment ads cost a lot, and I don’t know how well they would work for me.”
At SignCraft, we hear from many shop owners with this question. Let us know how and where you’ve found reliable help—and how you keep them.
Ah, Tom.
Fully agree . . . . employees! . . . aaaargh ! ! !
I have no employees any more.
Thank bloody goodness.
In about 2010 I shut my business after thirty years in an industrial shed in town, I let the lease go, had parted company with my last employee, and I did the grey nomad thing around Oz.
Had the relationship breakdown in Darwin after a year of travelling and came home.
Not being any good at entertaining myself, I started up again, just working from my shed at home. By myself, for myself.
And FINALLY started to make money.
So, Reader, don’t be too heartbroken about not being able to keep employees.
In my experience, a small business owner / employer is merely a conduit.
The money goes in the top, and if any’s stuck on the way through, you’ve done really well.
So if you can get the work done by yourself, do that.
If you need help on a job, find a handy person to help you with that job.
Or, and I know this goes well against every self-employed person’s instincts, if the job’s too big for you to handle by yourself . . . pass on it.
I could go into reasons for ages, but I won’t bore you.
If you do want to hear why, I could rant for pages.
John.
Prickle Patch Signs.
Nambucca Heads, NSW Australia.
Totally agree.
Our best employees came from the ranks of those that had a retirement from a previous occupation. They were bored and wanted a part time job. They knew how to work, how to listen, how to get along, and had skill sets for me to discover to put them where they could perform often better than me.
That is True Leadership.
I agree with John Elliot…..aaaargh!!
Nothing will ever replace the years when people actually wanted to work. We now live in an age of entitlement and the employees are in control.
The one thing that all self employed sign people have in common is a passion for their trade. The one thing that keeps you from failing is the willingness to overcome whatever obstacles are thrown at you.
Finding like minded people is always a struggle and I don’t have any suggestions for finding the right employee, all the suggestions I’ve read are good so pick one and see where it takes you.
In the mean time I enjoy being semi-retired and I don’t need any help at the moment thank you very much.
Juergen Foerster
Foerster Signs LLC
Slinger, WI USA
YOU ARE THE ONLY PERMANENT EMPLOYEE….PERIOD.
I forget where I read that,, heck it could have been here.
First and foremost you want Women. I tried to hire a 26 yo AA female
who picked up on the weeding and taping Instantly. Ultimately I offered $20 per hour to start and Train. Turns out she wanted daily pay so she could go buy weed. %#@*!! No matter how good her hand eye,NO.
PT emps: The best pool is Older or retirees and Hispanic females. You can not under pay these people. They need to eat, pay rent, and Auto expenses. There you will find good employees, but ultimately nothing stays the same. Your life and business changes and so does theirs.
Know the type of persons that need something stable. Even Part Time Steady will be great for retirees who need to Supplement their Income. Be fair and treat them with respect and gratitude and until their life or Health changes you will have a great Employee.
AVOID FAMILY. There are exceptions with that. Good luck finding the exception.
Oh btw. The Permanent employee thing was from a Food Network show about a Restraunt owner in SE Costal Georgia. Their Best and very long term Employee had a Life Opportunity and she took it.
Tough blow to the Restraunt and its Customers.
Since 1992
Richard McKinley
McKinley Advertising, LLC
The subject of hiring is at best hit and miss, mostly because a lot of
younger people are not dedicated to a work ethic.
When I was vice president of a large promotional products company, I was responsible for recruiting new talent into our one-hundred-year-old
company, mostly regional managers.
After several months of wasted time and resources, I found the older semi-retired, experienced people with previous sales experience worked well.
The ideal person was retired early because of a downturn in business and a cut in expenses was needed.
New hire managers worked endlessly proving their worth to those who believed older salespeople, had reached their peak and should be pushed out.
One practice I used during interviews, was to insist the prospective candidate repeat his resume’ without being able to look at it. Doing so brought out phonies, untruth tellers and over embellishment of past
successes.
Lastly, I handed them a pen and asked them to sell it to me.
I realize most sign companies aren’t looking for the same people as I have touched on, but this process will work, even with lower jobs that have less responsibilities.
We received this comment from Rich Dombey, Rich Designs Inc., via email:
I think the first question is how do you find someone with the same passion that you have (or once had) and that same work ethic. I have had some REALLY amazing employees, especially my last employee. But the lack of drive and failure to think proactively, not to mention the sense of entitlement made some projects nearly impossible to complete with those I tried to hire after that.
I think future employees need to find you, based on the type of work that you do, and the desire and willingness to do that type of work. Choosing this profession has to start with passion. If you can find that, everything else will eventually fall into place. –Rich
John from Australia hit the nail on the head… I must have had 80 employees over the 20+ years that I trained and endured folks and I consciously resist remembering the screw-ups…When I stopped trying to be a big operator, I started to keep more of the money I was generating. Plus, VERY FEW re-dos and lots less stress as well.
Do what you can with your own two hands and an occasional hand from a friend or neighbor.
AND Hey! you can’t do everything. Let the unprofitable and over-sized jobs go. Do the ones that give you satisfaction… The Universe always throws in another opportunity..
Jeff Cahill
Woodland Park, Colorado
John again . . . Prickle Patch Signs.
I just want to clarify a few things, and add a comment or two:
Not all employees are useless layabouts. I do not want to give the impression that I think that.
I’ve had some real gems over the years.
Employers and small business owners range from brilliant to work for to being complete toads as well.
One trick I did finally work out . . . to answer your original question, Reader . . . is that if a young person comes in looking for a job, forget about looking at their resume, school records, previous qualifications etc.
Find out if when they were say, five, did they have to do the washing-up?
By seven or eight, were they having to wash the family car?
By twelve or thirteen, were they mowing the lawn?
If they wanted a bicycle or new phone, or whatever, did they have to save up for say, half of it?
Examples only, of course.
In other words, did their parents train them from childhood that they had to pull their weight in the family?
Were they trained that if they wanted something, they had to earn it, not just put their hands out.
Did their parents create a mindset that the world does NOT owe them a living, that they must earn their spot in the world, therefore your business.
Those young people are rare. But they are out there.
Unfortunately, at least in Australia, small business is increasingly being crippled by bureaucratic rules, regulations, on-costs, and on and on.
So even with the very best of employees, it’s just getting harder and harder for us to make an actual living.
Don’t know what it’s like in the rest of the world, but here the government says, ‘Employ people, employ people, employ people’, then make it virtually impossible to do so.
For what it’s worth,
John.
We received this comment from Bob Behounek via email:
Finding qualified employees can be difficult. If you do find competent ones, you need to have a solid benefit program in place for them, such as health insurance, and pension/profit sharing as a perk to encourage long term employment.
Many Unions even have apprenticeship programs and industry-related educational opportunities too. These benefits not only help each employee, but their families as well. Depending where you are employment is located, though, the above-mentioned benefits may not be available.
I have a feeling that back in the day, this is why those interested enough in the work moved to the bigger cites for these opportunities. –Bob