Local Takeover 2.0 (Part I )

(This is an inside joke because the guy we partnered with is bald and we tell him he looks like Tom from Guess Who. This will make the office laugh when they see it published, so sorry, but it was probably worth it)

This is extremely important as well. Maybe the most important piece of the puzzle. We decided instead of just hiring management and trusting them to be passionate about our business growth and uphold our values we were going to instead find THE Person and offer them a salary as well as equity.

It is impossible to find someone that will care for your business more than you so we searched for partnership rather than just an employee.

We ended up hiring and giving some equity to the perfect candidate. They have almost twenty years of experience in the space, they’re intelligent and extremely ethical. Consider us fortunate that we knew this person our entire lives and have a great relationship with them. I am working on an identical deal with someone I do not have as much rapport with and it is forming in the same manner so do not think you need wait for this once in a lifetime person, it just worked out on this one specific deal.

There was a salary negotiated with this person as well. They would handle the entire management of operations from visiting businesses and homeowners and providing them with estimates, follow up, managing the actual projects, accounting on a per job basis, etc. He is truly the managing partner in the business.

Having one of THE Person is not 100% essential but that means you are either hiring someone out of pocket until the business is profitable or you are having a hand in the management. If you are short on capital then the latter is going to be more realistic.

As far as employees, we use subcontractors exclusively. Look at the laws and make sure you are abiding by the rules of subs and not setting yourself up for failure. We did well with finding subcontractors on indeed and local Facebook groups.

My advice from hiring hundreds of employees across multiple businesses and industries, gather as many applicants as possible and put them through a test project. Then you will see the best of the bunch. Always keep the best in your Rolodex as they can make for great fill-in workers in situations where other workers do not show up or their performance starts to suffer. This will happen so prepare accordingly.

Now you have the perfect system for getting some work done. You have your management and the workers. The only thing you need to worry about now is keeping the pipeline full.

Key Takeaways:

1. If you have the capital to invest, hire a manager, if not then you will need to be more hands on until the time comes when you can make that hire and remove yourself from the business.
2. Grab subcontractor employees on 10-99 to avoid workman’s comp, payroll taxes, etc. Check the legalities and guidelines of subcontractors to ensure you above board and not breaking any laws.
3. Always remember that no one will care about your business like you will care about your business. If giving some equity makes sense then give it. There are a lot of ways to structure equity where it gets awarded based on benchmarks and achievements to ensure you are not giving equity to a bum.