Employees?

I am starting to consider highering an employee for the summer time. business is starting to get busy and i have all the work i can handle my self. i'm actually having to turn some customers away and that is not good for business..... i was just wondering what is a general comission for an employee with limited experience and should they pay for the cost of material???

and no, they shuld not pay for the material that you wil profit off of. maybe their tools but not material.
and are you sure that you want an installer or would an assistant be more helpful, ilek to prep, clean and talkt to customers. I find that when my wife is here helping, as an assistant, my install times go down by almost half. just something to consider.

I pay my guy's a weekly pay check and if they make any mistakes I make them pay for the film that was wasted on redo's and or mistakes. It makes them be more carfull and take there time to do the job right the first time because they know if they don't there paying for it. but other then that I pay for the film...And also the tools are not included the installer must pay for his or her own tools!!!! If you supplied the tools they would be left all over the place and lost and they would not care. the way I do it they respect everything !!!!!!!!!!!11

Im impressed you can find employees willing to work with these stipulations ...they must be payed well with the weekly check then

I totally agree with the not respecting tools part

an hourly wage is good for someone thats wiping windows and picking up your tint trash...you know they wont be able to tint worth $hit plus you'll have to tell them how to clean windows right and if the dont run a card down the edge when cleaning and you get a galaxy of dust in your film your gonna wish you payed them even less. I used to give a friend 10 bucks a car for preping the back half. He wipes 3 windows in 15 min max, thats 40$ an hour if were busy...not bad. Why do you turn away customers, just tell them to make an appointment...most will like that better so they can drop the car off or plan for it.

writing down appointments is best if you cant do them the same day mang, if they want to they're car with ya then they wont go away. tomorrow is another day.


as far as DrTinter From new york, you cant be discounted employee's checks out of the woodworks because they simply did a mistake, we all make mistakes once in a while, you cant be a biatch asss boss like that, or you'll never have help around.

now, if they making mistakes every day then yea, kick them out the door

What's the point in having a know-nothing prep the glass? I would consider that the most important step prior to install, and you are going to put it in the hands of some rookie?

The phone, and walkins are the biggest killer of the day. Granted, thats where the money comes from, but you aren't going to get it talking all day. Get someone up front to handle the customers while you work your magic in the shop.

The way the law reads here I have to charge my installers/subcontractors for the film. This is all done in accounting, it’s not like we write down all the film they use. They then (on paper) take the cost of their materials off of their TAXES!!! It’s the law and it works pretty well if you ever get audited. BTW while talking about film and employees. I have 6 full time auto installers and my shop loses a average of 75 dollars a day in film from mistakes. I’m not talking about blowing a window I’m talking about cutting the wrong color or the wrong size then leaving it on the cutting table to be ruined by sitting things on it or sitting on it! This film I pay for out of my pocket hmmmmmmmmmmm! Lucky for me I can use most of this film in my weekly 6 day training school. Yiks!!!!! That saves lots tinters jobs!!!!!!

not really on the thread of this topic but i now work on my own

my one employee tried the old 'lets get myself some tint n tools' routine and tried to go it alone

nowt wrong with that I spose

but I aint gonna teach no-one nothing no more!

got enough work for one, can also get some hands for flat glass installs

and if i leave something somewhere its there when i look for it

... and it helps with the quality monitoring of the work going out

Next employee is in my wifes womb at the moment!!!!!!!!

i have a guy im training for 10 an hour. does ok on sides but loses alot of tools.

well I find that if I teach them how I want teh glass clean and stress the importantacne of it and that is theeir main focus, that they do it well.

Now I always reclean a window just before install anyways, even if I preped them so I am still checking as you said " the most important step prior to install"

I just expect to lose some film & a few tools when I'm training a new tinter. I also stress the importance of a clean job versus a quick job always.

The new guy never worries he will be docked some pay for messing up & even my trained tinters don't have to worry about that either.

I pay my main tinter a % & the others get hourly +

I agree with TINT, I only dock an employee for mistakes if it is something obvious, and they let it go out just because they were too lazy to redo it. Ive found that if tinters know that they are going to be docked pay every time they screw up, they will not be so likely to peel the film and redo the window.

The overall quality of the job becomes jeopardized, and you wont know it until the upset customer brings it back, and by then they've told all of there friends not to bring there car to your shop.

Your tinter doesn't care about this. all they care about is you being able to hear them peel the film from the window and then being charged for it.

hey afterhours, what part of sc are you from?

You are DEFINATELY lucky, or you have glorified shop monkeys, or complete idiots working for you. I would not even get out of bed for less than 30% of the gross of each sale. Nor would I insult the intelligence of a REAL tinter by trying to pay him/her any less. People who make me money MAKE ggod money themselves!!
I also agree on the toopls bit tho. I supply the expendables (Paper towels, razor blades, olfa blades, etc..) They provide thier own tools. It's amazing how well they keep up with them when it's on thier dime!

MM is right. Sounds to me like you run a REALLY TIGHT ship. I'd tell you to , then I'd and leave. That kind of atmosphere is not conducive to doing good work, IMHO. The more relaxed I am, the better I do. Really good tinters MUST be a dime a dozen around you 'cuz I'm willing to bet you got one hell of an attrition rate. I'd be willing to bet you use what I call "floaters" ( translation = crack-heads ) They are the only ones I know desperate enough to work under those conditions. If I'm wrong, and you don't need the help, send a couple of them my way. If they can tint to my standards, they will be in heaven after what you put them thru!.
Crap, man, even I make mistakes (I know... hard to believe, but true ) Just today, last car of the day, I did the passenger window of a friend of mines Miata 3 times. Combo of wanting to go to the house, and my perfectionism. If I were perfect, I'd probably expect everyone else to be too. But I'm not. And I don't.

Afterhours, Read this thread in it's entirety, let it run it's course and you get an Idea of how to treat (and NOT treat ) employees. There are some good points brought up, and some pretty idiotic things as well. You should be able to sort it out tho...

I do the same.... Just having one person on the job scraping and final cleaning makes me much more efficient. Once they know what you want and get some experience they'll reach the point where they can final clean fairly quickly. In the beginning you should always reclean of course, but it really shouldn't take long