4 replies to this topic

[Sam Morgan]

My workload just keeps getting bigger and bigger....sending out proposals several times a week and getting most projects even after raising my prices considerably.   I'm trying to figure out if I should hire someone as an in house designer/employee or just send work to other SP users that can help keep on top of each other.   I'm sure both have their pros and cons....would love to hear opinions from others that have gone through the same thing.   I've had employees in the past as a builder so I'm not new at being an employer...just not sure if I want to go down that road again.

 

Thanks all!

 

 

Sam

[Tim Stockton]

Sam - I've had the same debate from time to time. 

 

The cons to hiring in house are: 1) you have to pay 1/2 of their social security/medicare taxes

2) I don't like the idea of training future competition (although a non-compete document can help)

3) The business is cyclical and I don't want to let go of someone once they've been trained.

4) You need capital up front to afford to bring someone on (payroll costs!)

 

The pros - 1) you can teach them how you want it done everytime

2) you can know that work is being done while you are meeting with clients

 

I'm sure there are more pros, but I'm not thinking of them now. 

 

Bottom line will be that you have to do what is right for you in your situation.  For me, I think that contracting out some work may be the best solution when I need extra help.

[Brad Graber]

I'm in the same boat.  I have tried both ways.

[Yvon Gonthier]

We tried outsourcing and that was a failure for us.
1- Unlike in house, you don't control what and when people work on your plans because they have other clients.
2- Our quality and info on our plans was to much for them to handle.
3- Quality was below standards.
4- Make sure that they send you spd copies of the type of plans they put out. We tried 2 different companies and they were suppose to use Softplan properly. I was amazed at how some people don't even use the basics of the Softplan features. Two didn't even have roofs on the floor plans and one didn't even have floor systems. Openings on plans weren't the proper windows and doors but just generic to show the right rso. Cabinets where lines and often stairs also. Basically, elevations and sections were generated like a CAD drawing.
5- We always have 2 different front elevations for each models and often optional floor plans. They would start on the second elevations and optional plans before completing one properly so every correction has to be done on all of them and would end up often with different mistakes on the different plans.
6- One never even finished the plans after giving us all kind of stories.

[Matt Orner]

Great problem to have.