Changed Business Plan

[CHEESE2009]

I'm really happy with my business plan, though I'm at a stall. In order to grow I need to hire a full time employee for lawn maintenance. I can't take on any more work as it is to afford one, unless I sacrifice the business's equipment replacement costs, office supplies (marketing material). The reason I want to grow is so I can pay myself more, though I can't grow without a full time assistant. Maybe that is my problem, I'm currently paying myself too much? With my budget now, I can currently afford an employee for $2,500.00, which is only going to give him/her 250 hours. Two months & a day of work. That's only decent if the person is an assistant who helps me do my route every now & then. Though I can't hire a person who can only work 250 hours, & expect my company to grow. I need to be able to afford an employee who can work 7,200 hours, but there is no budget for that unless I sacrifice many things. If I had good luck with my equipment, I wouldn't mind. What I see now is, I have to double my customer base before I get to hire someone! Which sounds obviously silly, though you know what I mean. There is no middle ground, It's either not worth hiring an employee or it's a desperate situation where you really have to. Part timers never stick around. Somewhat of a solution: If I take on new customers, I could pack my Monday & Tuesday customers together in one day, & have this 250 hour worker give me a hand on those days. Then I have an entire day left over that I could add customers to. Though it will only work if we are both efficient. Downside: I have to do the math to figure out if 1 or two extra days of "hard earned" work enable me to keep this employee for the later months after his hours are depleted, if I can extend the 250 hours, & maybe even get him working 5 days a week to being my foreman in 2011. What a slow tedious process. It just sounds crappy. I have to do double the work, just to hire an employee. Most of the customers I receive, their money will probably go straight to paying off my employees hours, that's my fear. Is it really worth it. Something is wrong. I can't raise my prices unfortunately, I'm at the point where I'd have to drop a low paying client for a higher paying client, which will just bite me in the arse in due time, when I try to offer my services back to them. I hate burning bridges. The best solution I can come up with: Go through another season alone, gain triple of every piece of equipment, then I can stop investing in new equipment/repairs & put the money towards hiring an employee. When the company grows & I can sustain the employee, the 'leftover' profits can be put back into new equipment/repairs. Smooth sailing. Con: Patience. (This is what I do at 4:30AM)