I am thinking of employing young school kid?

[Peter Normington]

Nick,
you can get grants and subsidies to train people,
but in your position it looks like the last thing you need is to babysit an apprentice.

if you are genuinely looking for good experienced help, you will have to pay the going rate, and take their salary into account when quoting for jobs.
Not saying its the case with you, but it is very easy to get work by quoting to cheap, only to find that when you cant cope, you cant afford proper staff to do the job
Minimum wage is around 250 a week, but if you add up ni conts, holidays etc it will cost you nearer £400 or £80 a day minimum,

Peter

[Nick Atkinson]

hi
peter
i can cope fitting,making etc
its just weeding,taping etc
and learning them my way etc,
thats why the thinking of someone young

[Peter Normington]

buy a weeder sheeter, then you wont need to employ anyone 😀

Peter

[Nick Atkinson]

what is one of them
peter

[Peter Normington]

My wife and I work as partners
last week Lynn cut, weeded and tapped up ten large vans in two days, on her own
http://www.weedersheeter.com/

well worth the money, cheaper than employing even the cheapest labour

Peter

[Nick Atkinson]

ahh with you now
thanks
peter :lol1:

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I see no harm in employing a young kid to do the grunt work.
Sweeping floors, taking out the trash, lending a hand.
I think it would be a win/win situation.
I’d rather see a kid learning a trade than working at McDonald’s.
Now if I could only get my 14 year old to help me….
Love….Jill

[Graham . Shand]

quote Peter Normington:

My wife and I work as partners
last week Lynn cut, weeded and tapped up ten large vans in two days, on her own
http://www.weedersheeter.com/

well worth the money, cheaper than employing even the cheapest labour

Peter

Peter, is there a UK supplier for these ?, amazing thanks for probably the best tip I have seen for while. Thanks Graham Shand

[Nick Atkinson]

i ask my 14 year old son to help me
he ask can i come back home at 9 to get him
and how much am i paying him 👿

[Warren Beard]

I had a 20 year old email me the other day offering to work for me for free as he is about to finish college and is interested in the sign field, he’s a "car enthusiast" and has messed around a bit with some wrapping on his car with 3m Di-Noc etc. He studied creative writing so not sure how that ties in to sign making :lol1:

anyway I turned him down because I am busy, I don’t have the time to teach him how to do the tasks I would give him and know I would end up just doing it myself (because that’s what I’m like) and he would end up sitting watching my TV for sure :lol1:

Also concerns me a bit that I train him and he starts up on his own and being local and in a small town would hit me hard, I already have a new guy one village down who is out all the time pushing for new work and I have already lost a few grand because of it.

As I get busier and busier I think about this possible staff situation and wonder how people do it when only a small one man operation, especially if it’s somebody who’s not bringing in work and only helping you get it out. not a situation I am looking forward to and hope I can keep it small yet make enough money.

sorry for thinking out aloud 🙄 :lol1:

[Robert Lambie]

I have went through a ton of staff over the years… i have had managers from other sign firms, owners of other sign firms come work with us… dozens of so called general sign makers, if you could call them that!

there are dozens of schemes on the go… prime example is Henry Boot training, Lagta, Itech, you name it… theres loads. these folk give you staff for a year free of charge for 6 months to a year. they pay the wage, you train the staff on the basis they have a job at the end of it.
the trouble is, these kids don’t really want to learn. im sure maybe 2/10 are great and well worth it. but ive no time to train all these folk to eventually find one i can use. anyway… theres a no cost solution for you, and extra set of hands…. keep in mind, not all, but "allot" of these kids are on these schemes because finding work for them is difficult. which is obviously WHY they are being offered to you for free!

Ive even went into the college looking for leavers. in one week i took 6 students that had just passed all their exams. 6 weeks later, i had one… then none! different situation, very nice lads, but their two years in college had done very little for them other than make them familure with various aspects of our trade, though no real hands on experience. further more…
what did do, they had weeks on end to do it. i.e. Make a perspex built-up letter. i saw an "E" & a "T" on the table. that was a module they had passed… they were given a full week to build those two letters, in a warm well lit classroom with mugs of coffee being hand out and more… send them into a busy working sign environment and they havent a clue whats hit them!

so who have i left? "school leavers" ive taken them straight from school and trained them up. first year your paying bare minimum… put them on a trial period, then extend it as time goes on. they dont come in with bad habits from other places. normally pretty shy and eager to get money in their pocket at the end of the week. one tip though… BAN mobile phones in the work place. i dont mean "on silent" in their pocket for texting either… :lol1:
a full day practicing weeding and they will get there… same goes for taping up and more.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

There would be a bit of worry that you could be training a potential competitor, I agree.
But if I could have someone who would help me with very mundane things, I would be happy.
I’d even be happy to teach someone how to paint signs.
I’d like to have someone to leave my business to when I get too decrepit to do signs.
That’s why I wish my 14 yr old showed interest.
All he cares about is tractors.

[Nick Atkinson]

even that i only started on my own 5 months ago i worked as a sign writer for 5 years then ended up working for a small firm for the last 17 years
fitting ,making etc there was as much overtime as i wanted to do
only stayed because i have a disabled son,and there was as much overtime
as i wanted
i know there plenty of work out there and whoever you take on the will leave and go on there own at some point
even thought it took me abit off time 😛

[John Thomson]

no matter what business you are in…..if you employ someone who is good at what they do it is usually because they have ‘drive’ …….and if they have that chances are they will end up working for themselves at some point.

john

[Adrian Neill]

We took on a College leaver last year as we also wanted someone who had no experience and we could train them the way WE work. She had just finished a Graphic Design course so already had an eye for detail. So far so good …… I think it did come as quite a shock coming from a college environment straight into a very busy sign company, but she’s proving herself to be a very reliable and valuable member of the team.

Yes there’s always the chance she could get all trained-up and move to another sign company, but I suppose that’s just a risk you have to take …. thing is though, if the working conditions are good and they are treated like a valuable member of the team they could well stay with you for quite some time.

I myself came straight from college at 18 ……. and i’m now close to my 35th birthday and am working at the same sign company !! Things have changed quite a bit, and i’m now in charge of my own department, but I came here knowing nothing about signs. I have no desire to own my own sign company as i’ve always wanted to be a designer and not a ‘business owner’. I get to do what I love and am passionate about without worrying about tax returns, PAYE payments, etc etc etc ……. so you never know, this guy could be with you for quite sometime.

[Gert du Preez]

Adrian,

You’re very lucky. I have only 1 "trained" graphic designer in my employ.

She answers the phones :lol1: Seriously. She’s the secretary / office manager.

Two more "designers" came up the usual way. Worked, got experience, I headhunted them, and then "massaged" them into my way of doing things.

In the workshop it is 50 / 50. Half the guys are really good, experienced long termers that I headhunted. They each have an extra set of "fingers" to help them – lower cost, mostly semi- or illiterate assistants.

One of these "fingers" is currently downstairs doing a full vehicle wrap, ( his 5th since last Monday) with a "fingers" of his own I assigned him to train. Most, however, will never shape like this.

If it’s just weeding and such you’re after, just about anybody can do it. Even a school kid or two who put in a couple of hours per week for pocket money. It is, after all, making signs, not rocket science 😉

[Bob Clarkson]

Ok Peter, 100% agree with you on this one. I subbed to a company many years ago, and was given this 16yr old as an assistant. By lunchtime I told them if they didn’t take him away I’d punch him before the day was out.

I know that’s a bit unfair to generalise on young people, but you’ve also really got to be doing pretty well to guarantee paying a person a full time semi-skilled wage to help you. It’s the carrying them through the slacker times that hurts. I employ people in a different business I have, and when I calculate my total yearly wage bill, all the tax and holidays etc included, it’s frightening.
There are kids out there that really want to learn, and really deserve a chance. But the weedersheeter looks like a more reliable proposition to me.