Employee Comp.

[Fisher]

At some point we are all training our future competition, no compete clause or not. With our larger projects I sometimes sub out work to those I know and trust. If they are approached for a bid in one of my neighborhoods ( I say my because it's usually new construction where we are the only ones working for the builder) then they will refer to us to bid it. We will at our choice let the sub bid the work but they must bid it just like we would. Aside from that I have no issue with anyone doing side jobs on their own time If it's someplace I have not put an effort into establishing our company or one of our existing customers.

[MountainViewGreenskeeper]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Yard Elements Anyway I think I have a solution to the problem. I will provide a non-compete form but offer him a sales incentive program so he can make extra cash and build the company. Win win. Now the questions is what to offer him. how Much? Any Ideas? I don't but I would be interested to know as well.

__________________
Colton
Mountain View Greenskeeper proudly offering yard care in the East Valley of Arizona.

[Fisher]

For customer referrals I offer $5 off for the season for referrals up to 2 referrals, I keep this in mind when bidding on a property I know came from a referral. I also network with other LCO's and people in similar trades where we basically give each other about 5% of the job or first months service after the work has been paid for.

For an employee incentive program I would consider $10 after the first month of lawn service and up to 5% share for a job they referred to us. On good jobs where we come out better than we thought I pay a little bonus anyhow and this seems to help with motivation as they know on a bigger job if they finish sooner and do better they may simply make more money than they would dragging a$$.

[shadrach]

Originally Posted by Yard Elements

I will provide a non-compete form but offer him a sales incentive program so he can make extra cash and build the company. Win win. Now the questions is what to offer him. how Much?
Any Ideas?

How much does it costs you to get a new customer? What percentage of sales is your advertising budget? Use 1 of those numbers to help decide. I do 4% of whatever the new customer spends the first year. We do it on upsells & added services too.

[Yard Elements]

I was thinking about giving him the sale price of seasonal contracts. Basically he sells a weekly lawn care contract for 40 per mow. Give him 40.00. How does that sound. Then on one-time sales maybe 2 to 5 percent to start with.


Maybe we are training our competition but the very large companies got that way some how and they all have day to day supervisors, salesmen etc. Take Valley Crest the largest Landscape Firm in the World do you think they have employees doing side jobs? Or Sub contract Landscape work? Or Brickmans or Davey tree?

I feel if you are landscape company it is OK to Sub for things like Concrete work or maybe tree work but not the actual landscape work. Then you are not a landscape company but a broker, correct? We do our OWN landscape, we are a landscape service company. I know it may seem cheaper to hire sub's but in the long run it's not the way to go or the right thing to do IMHO unless like I stated above it's for something other than landscape work. Or maybe a large dirt movig project you can't do yourself. You can't just sub everything and call yourselves landscape companies. That is a Broker. Nothing wrong with being a broker

[Steve]

So, I gave my employee a mower so he could cut his grass.

I am sure there are others that are considering doing this. If you could do it all over again, would you do it differently?

Or if you see this might happen again in the future, how would you handle it?

[Yard Elements]

After MUCH CAREFUL deliberation I have come to this conclusion.


He probably didn't think he was doing anything wrong or he would not have told me about it. I didn't tell him he couldn't and didn't have a no compete form. So I will let him continue this client. Make him and all employees sign a no compete form, but offer them the employee incentive sales approach so that they can go out ANYTIME and make extra money for them, me and the company all around win.

If i had it to do all over again I would not do anything different i learned a valuable lesson and i think my approach will generate extra revenue in the future for my company while allowing employees to make extra $$. They will also make more with there hourly because the days and routes fill up faster and they get moved up faster. I always seem to turn a bad situation into a nice pile of dollar bills.

[Steve]

I do 4% of whatever the new customer spends the first year. We do it on upsells & added services too.

Can you explain this a little more? Does this mean after the first year, you calculate a bonus for the employee based on that?

Or how does that work?

[dpld]

Originally Posted by Yard Elements

I am licensed, bonded and insured. We currently employee four people including myself. Hiring independent contractors in IMHO is a little strange. We all wear uniforms and drive company trucks. I am trained in horticulture and so are my guys. We are not hacks that simply walk off the street and mow grass. He does know the cost because I am training him to be a supervisor and to bid jobs. I don't want to run the whole company forever, besides soon it will be too big to manage on my own.

Anyway I think I have a solution to the problem. I will provide a non-compete form but offer him a sales incentive program so he can make extra cash and build the company. Win win. Now the questions is what to offer him. how Much?

Any Ideas?

non compete forms are not worth the paper they are printed on unless you are dealing directly with a employee that stole a bonafide customer away.

i been at it long enough to know that as a landscape laborer your income is limited and has a low ceiling and if your laborer needs to make extra income his choices are work OT if you got the work to allow that, get a second job or find a better paying job.
if he is a good worker and you want to keep him around and you can not afford to pay him more or give him OT then the next best alternative is to give him some side work with things you can't be bothered with.

the ground rules have to be he does it on his own time and it does not get between his responsibility working for you and also make it clear that you are refferring him so you will not be responsible or connected to anything he does in any way shape or form.
and if it leads to a large job then it comes right back and if your caught, your fired.

any time you hire someone it is a given that you are going to invest a lot of time and money into them and when they feel they know it all they will go off to start their own business and just walk away.

i had 5 guys in total so far over the years that i basicly taught everything they know from scratch that went on to start their own businesses in my area.
i compete with them often and i keep in touch and have a working relationship still with these guys today and there are lines that they will not cross to keep the peace.

i must have taught them well because their businesses are all doing outstanding and each have at least 4 to 6 full time employees

as for the mower issue, if you gave it to the dude straight up then it is his mower and what ever he does with it after the fact is his business.

[dpld]

sorry, i just realized this thread was 6 months old.

ha ha i feel stupid.