[geefree]

Did any of you guys start on your own, then take one man and works as a pair.....or joined up with someone else...

and do you find it more profitable than when you was alone..

Because i was thinking it would only be better for company wise, as i think two men can only pay if you work from two vans...


but i stand to be corrected...

some say they cant or wont work alone... and some would have it no other way....

just wondered if anyone started alone and are now a 2 man outfit, and are you better off.?

[Steve CM]

i started alone, i rarely do any graft now.

[AuRavelling79]

I work alone - except for two jobs where I pal up with another guy - once on his job another he is on mine.

So basically once every month I work with someone else for half a day. It's a change but no better or worse than working on my own financially.

If it was a run of domestics I think I'd earn less if from the same van.

[dave.e]

i work on my own but team up with wife 2 times a month for big houses inside and i pay her so keeps me in the good books. dave

[dai]

I had a guy work with me, and a good guy too, the days take was only 50/60% higher for the two of though.
I was paying him 35% and hardly made any more money.
Once you work with another, you lose your freedom, it's no good when your working an estate, and the other wants to finish at 5pm, and you only have two more houses to do to finish the estate.
It didn't work for me, but it may for you.

[d s windowcleaning]

if you fall in the middle of the street having a mass heart attack you will thank your lucky stars there was 2 of you .

[MSTAV]

i started alone, i rarely do any graft now.

HAHA you mean never do any graft now...

[Steve CM]

i started alone, i rarely do any graft now.

HAHA you mean never do any graft now...

the way the snow is at the minute i may have to come out of retirement for a few weeks

[wizclean]

nobody ever does the work the same way you like , i have a young lad with me for three days but i dont think it makes a huge difference to what i get done. i just like telling someone what to do lol

[Dean Taberner]

Hi,

I started out alone and I really enjoyed it until one day I feel off my ladder and nearly killed myself.

After taking a year off injured and realising my dream job of a fulltime role with the police wasnt realisticaly never going to happen, I decided to build up what was left of my round and set somebody on part-time.

I wasnt making a penny out of them, I just felt safe having somebody there to foot my ladder.

3 years on, Ive gone WFP and have 1 full-time and 2ish part-time workers, 2 vans albeit 1 van is a £100 bargain vauxhall combo from a mate. ( I did 800 mile in it alone last week, so it is a bargain with 9 month MOT on it)

Employing is the future,

Dean

[Neil271052]

I have my son with me, you can trust family not to let you down.

A bugger to get out of bed in the morning though.  :

[gerard mcmanus]

I can see why you dont think it would be economical, and it kind of depends on your round. I tend to suit the customer more and go by when they want it done rather than doing a whole street at a time,  I then do more traveling(though very rarely have to go back for money) its likely better if I have two vans, because two people in one van will be able to finnish a job in half the time but not drive to the next job any quicker. But I guess a fair bit of money is still saved with cost of and running a second vechile.

I do think that at the start you should be working with a newbie to show him the ropes for a couple of months even if your intention is to put him a van on his own.

[Ian Lancaster]

two people in one van will be able to finnish a job in half the time

Not true

If you're trad, even if you have a ladder each and start on different parts of the building, one of you will be waiting for the other to finish.

If you're WFP you can't do 'one up - one down' because you need to wait till the upper windows stop dripping on the lower ones.

When I was employing I had two men working from one van - I made sure they had the same amount of work each to do at every stop.  I only let them both work on the same job once - the time we lost made it no better than one man doing it on his own.