How to expand?

[local patios and driveway]

Im going for broke at the moment and i really think i can generate the work to have a second team working on the landscape side of the business. Im after advice really, i have a third guy who is new but promising, but to take that step is a bold move.

How do you larger firms keep tabs on what is happening? Fuel theft? What systems do you have in place to ensure your guys arnt dossing at every opportunity?

Working in the plant game i know that grafters who will work when left alone are out there but in general the brits will sit down given the chance when left alone.. I bloody hate that attitude

[lutonlagerlout]

you need a second foreman,as good as yourself who can work a lone
hard to find mate
LLL

[London Stone Paving]

LLL's right. Its all about finding the right people. Very hard to do because you will never find somebody who thinks like you do. If this guy is showing some promise maybe give him a small job to run and see how he handles the pressure. You've got to give them enough work so that they work with a sense of urgency but not so much that they sink under the weight of it

[Kuts]

We had 2 gangs on at one point, 1 prep and one on the Tarmac.
The gaffer on the dig out/prep was an old school murphys Ganger man(c**t to work for), got the job done though:)

[Dave_L]

We had 140 blokes on at one point but thats another story....

Big ain't beautiful!

[Pablo]

I'm in the same boat just now I could keep another 2 squads in work. The setup costs of a squad outweigh the benefits of having anymore for now and the chances are that they'll run out of work come the winter so once the setup and running costs are balanced against the profit it's just not worth it. Also I've never been able to get more than 20% extra profit at most and usually it's around 10% which at the present time just isn't worth the stress and hassle. I take my pick of the jobs I'll make good money on and let the rest slide

[lutonlagerlout]

theres a lot of truth in pablos words

sitting in the house suffering all afternoon i had 4 phone calls
1 lady wants her loft conversion in milton keynes finished
2 a scaffolder i know wants some doors bricking up
3 a fella wants a conservatory base done tomorrow :;):
4 and my mate wants me to do his drugs counsellor a drive way from slabs, quote "she has already got the slabs"

do these people think we just sit in over the winter watching the kid/dog starve?
LLL

[rab1]

dont you....? :;):

[DNgroundworks]

i work with a team of lads, we are all self employed Bill AKA pinder plant, the digger man, myself dn groundworks, the groundwork man and another fella plus a few labourers, its seems to be working well

[mickavalon]

All my lads are subbies, can't afford to employ properly, we've got 5 on, 3 skilled, 1 very skilled labourer/driver and a young lad labouring and learning the ropes. As long as I coordinate the jobs, and move 3 guys on to the next job while the other 2 finish the last, it works..kind of..sometimes, oh yeah, and I'm one of the skilled guys( I hope) and so I have to do all the other "Stuff" as well. It helps to have a few temporary lads about as well, just in case!!

[GB_Groundworks]

i work with a team of lads, we are all self employed Bill AKA pinder plant, the digger man, myself dn groundworks, the groundwork man and another fella plus a few labourers, its seems to be working well

How does that work you on date rate? who's he boss decision maker, who buys materials who's liable and liases with the customer etc?

[DNgroundworks]

well i suppose Bill is the Boss on the job we are on at the minute, i sub-contract to Pinder Plant...but do my own thing with my bit of the job (the paving), the whole job is bills (he currently muckshifting), we are starting one of my jobs soon, Bill will sub contract to me. We have other jobs where we will go in together...bill will supply plant and waste disposal and take his bit of cream and i will supply materials and labour.

We both go and look at the job and meet the clients, we both liase with the architects, laborers answer to us...easy really.

TBH it all early days, my brother now works for William Pyes, so i was at a loose end and so was Bill, The guy is a multi millionaire...he just cant stay at home, but then again he cant really work on his own...handy for me as he gets chance of some great jobs, and means i have access to a wealth of new plant :p

[GB_Groundworks]

looks a good guy to know, stick close and he might want you to take over if he gets an 18yr old gf lol, we are after a new 8 ton machine to replace our old sumitomo one, its geting old and no offset dig and on steel tracks. want a kubota like hes got, ou plant dealer has got a 2011 one with 1000 hours he wants 31k for it. bit rich that, we are currently getting rid of our jcb 801.8 and gettign a kubota mini. we've been moaning about the jcb for 2 years and dad did a full day on it yesterday for the first time and turned up and said its got to go haha, so be sweet if we can get bota at 1.5,3,5,8 and have the 2 js130 and a 3cx that'll do us that and look better than a mixed fleet.

[DNgroundworks]

That would be sweet, i have driven the kx57-4 thats a great machine, i would love an all kubota fleet.

Ive always tried and been instructed by others to "look after the big hitters" and i do, hopefully ill be able to make a few quid :p

Great guy tho, he knows people all over the country, plant wise.

The machines i most enjoy driving are the manitou and the honda quad and trailer we have for moving our tools round site, great fun!!

[Pablo]

bumped into a mate who's in the same game yesterday and chewed the fat with him for an hour over a cuppa and this very subject came up. He's very busy just like me and could easily bring on more men but won't for the reasons I mentioned before but he also made a good point about how the 1st squads profitability suffers when you have to take a step back because you have to split your time between 2 squads and generating extra work. Basically you're wage bill goes through the roof because you need a foreman and a chargehand and your profit falls because you can't keep a constant eye on material wastage and men don't work so fast when the boss isn't there. The wages will be taking a large chunk of your earnings so you'll need to put your prices up to top your wage up to an acceptable level. We agreed that the only way a second squad is worth it just now is if they're constantly working on commercial stuff so your job is being done by the site foreman and he keeps them pointing the right way and deals with material supply.