Best Type of Work For Making A Profit?

[baileyuph]

Chris, if the market is there in sufficient volume to get support go for it.  Take small steps at a time, then the change won't be too much to deal with.

Small steps, for example find someone who want coffee money to do things like sewing.  Where would Ford be today if Henry remained hands on?  Dumb anology but said to merly say it might turn out fine and better for everyone.

Today, being small has disadvantages, bottom line is we all have to work and manage smarter. 

Take a deep breath and continue to analyze and review the situation.  Someday I can say I knew the founder of that corporation.   :D

Doyle

[gene]

"Someone who wants coffee money" can wind up suing for workers comp, medical payments for injuries, discrimination, or claiming that they were an employee and not a subcontractor. Oh, paying them cash under the table thinking that local, state, and federal tax agencies who are strapped for income wouldn't be interested?

Just some thoughts...

gene

[JDUpholstery]

my CPA told me that hiring someone as a contractor but having them work in your shop doesn't count...it might have worked in the past but now if they felt like claiming unemployment, whether you had them on a W-2 or a 1099 they are still considered your employee and can claim workers comp, unemployment, etc...under the table is not an easy way to go either, especially if you keep your books straight, if they dont claim the taxes you end up footing the bill!

[sofadoc]

It was explained to me (by my CPA) several years ago that if I supervise them in any way, I cannot count them as contract labor.
But like JD says, the laws and definitions may have changed.

[byhammerandhand]

There used to be a handful PASS/FAIL questions to determine if someone was an independent contractor or employee, that fell into
* Behavioral control
* Financial control
* Relationship of worker and the firm
http://www.jolanders.com/bookkeeping/10_employee_and_subcontractor_information/employee_vs_subcontractor_2.php#.UEUqepYnD90


Now, it's a bit more complex because "You didn't build that business by yourself." http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss8.pdf

[jojo]

Thanks for the info Keith.
My partner is supposedly an independant contractor for a company that makes pharmaceutical computerized drug dispensing equipment (she's phone tech support). But of course they tell her when to work (a set schedule), how to work, and she has to attend meetings. But when it comes to the good stuff like benefits and paid vacation, she's on her own. I can see from these checklists that she's probably more like an employee, but this company wants to have their cake and eat it too.

[Mojo]

My son owns a large tech company. He has employees scattered all over the world ( tech's ). He used to have all American workers and would never farm out work overseas then he started seeing a trend here. He had tech's come on board, would work hard till they were eligible for unemployment and then screw off. He would release them and they would file for benefits.

He pays his techs very good money and they had awesome benefits ( Blue Cross, 401 K, etc. ) and he paid them large bonuses every year at Christmas time. Because his techs are all young ( they seem to be the only ones who can grasp the computer programming they use ) they didn't care if they got canned. They would sit back and collect unemployment and my son was stuck going back out on the street and hiring new employees, train them and start the cycle all over. He had several techs without a high school diploma making $ 50 K a year.
They were so dang good with the programming he didn't care about their education. But their young age really brought them down in regards to their work ethics.

He closed down their corporate headquarters in VA and put all the employees on home based offices. This created a problem as some were not disciplined to work independent of supervision. So he then started hiring contractors to do the work. One got fired and the State said he was not a contractor and was actually an employee so he got unemployment benefits.

So my son got tired of the BS and started hiring techs from Europe. No benefits, no unemployment, etc. He still pays them bonuses and actually pays them a bigger salary but no longer has the headaches. He hated to do it as he has always been a huge supporter of the USA and American workers but then his products and services are worldwide now and covers the globe.

He maintains some staff in the USA but hires techs overseas. He kept all of their security work and data centers in the USA. It is a damn shame to see and it still bothers him but they were getting killed with costs over the BS. After talking with him about all that he goes through I decided I would stay small and a one man shop. :)

Chris

[byhammerandhand]

There have been instances where people have sued for things like workman's comp, FICA contribution, etc.  Just saying.

Thanks for the info Keith.
My partner is supposedly an independant contractor for a company that makes pharmaceutical computerized drug dispensing equipment (she's phone tech support). But of course they tell her when to work (a set schedule), how to work, and she has to attend meetings. But when it comes to the good stuff like benefits and paid vacation, she's on her own. I can see from these checklists that she's probably more like an employee, but this company wants to have their cake and eat it too.

[byhammerandhand]

I used to work with someone who left the company and got hired on somewhere else.   They would never "hire an employee" off the street.  You had to work as a contractor for six months.  I always thought that was a neat idea because you can bluff your way through an interview and even behave for a while, but generally you can't fake it for six months.   Nowadays, you'd need to be careful, as an employer, to keep the job for sure as an "independent contractor" status.

I used to work with a bunch of people from Europe.  Contractors there are popular because the labor laws are very strict.  At that time, at least, you could only lay off an employee on two days a year.   And you have to give them six months notice.   I don't remember the days, but say it's January 1 and July 1.  If on January 3, you decide that someone needs to be laid off, they would be employed for the rest of the year because you could not give them notice until July 1.   Talk about "lame ducks?"

[mroy559]

Just as much as we prefer to gripe concerning the new furniture taken from China this repair do the job from this can be a money producer. I have discovered the simpler a chunk is the higher the gains are. Antiques are generally time hogs and also hard to make a profit if you have to strip down to the shape. But without them I'd be from business.

[Mojo]

 Back during my business consultant days I had a client located in England. She was having a problem with one of her employees ( namely he was stealing stuff ). She had a company on retainer and this company did nothing but coach employers on the laws and help them when they needed to fire someone.

She had to document things, get proof, etc. before firing the guy. In another instance she had a guy that was lazier then hell and it took her a full year and heavy documentation, numerous warnings, etc. to sack the guy.

You think our labor laws are bad for employers they are nothing compared to the ones in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Chris

[JDUpholstery]

Just finished my first full boat cover (start to finish new materials, not a repair job) and actually turned a profit, again I was cheaper than the other guys and could have probably charged and made more, but I was happy with the profit I made..



it was copy of an existing cover so I did not have to pattern off the boat, just measure and cut, and in a few cases cut off part of old cover to use as pattern on the weird angle stuff

[crosjn]

I know in my business, repetition = greater $profit - doing fifty identical restaurant chairs will be more profitable than 12 sets of 4 chairs.  I find I can charge something around 20% less for the bulk job than I would for a one or two item job.  But once in the groove of doing the same thing again and again, I get more assembly line type efficiency/mentality and whip through larger jobs fairly quickly.

The more custom a job is, the more time spent doing intangible head scratching or trial and error that I can't bill for.

Jeff

[Mike]

I dont do so much repairs now that im in florida nut when i had my waterfront shop in Nh i hX alot of walki ins bring inanrepait on saturday. A resew  or windows needing new vinyl. Resew ana average  runabout top   I charge like 75 and hour labor   And i could resew it in less mYbe 20 mins. Or a new eindow vinyl on a 22' boats side window less then kne yard of 30 roll. Inyl in get $35. And 1O mins work.
One thing inalway hated was the guy that would. Ring me a
BimIni top to resew frames and all id have to r
Ove the stews sometime frozen in place to romovemthe crame from the canvas.
Ot of times id to a wuick easy fix for free to make a happy repea customer with a larger  project.