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Advice on expanding needed


Dazza88
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Evening all, 

We run a small business down in the south east which Started in 1981 by my father.

He has in the past had 3 fully employed 2 man teams for around 15 years but has gradually over time dropped down to having one fully employed 3 man team due to not needing the stress anymore.

I have now been handed the reins and have all the spark and ambition he originally had so looking to expand.

So I’m basically looking for some advice to find out when is the right time to grow. 

We are currently booked solid through to mid/late January with regular contracts and new contracts still coming in. 

I know having two teams means needing twice the amount of work however my heart is telling me the time is right but my head is holding back?

we already have the van, chipper and climbing equipment so would just need a few tools to create a second team.

So do we continue as we are with the single team having pleanty of work ahead of us hoping that people wait for us to carry out their work as they have in the past or do we expand; gobble the work up with a second team in the hope that work carries on coming in as it is?

Any advice from anyone who has been I a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. ?

 

 

Edited by Dazza88
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42 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Judging from the number of adverts that don't get much response on here the constraint might well be staff rather than work for them to do.

An industry wide problem / challenge IME (feedback from contractors.) The phrase 'organic growth' comes to mind but that can take time and if your ambition is to grow quickly then I guess "pay rates" is an important consideration which of course can result in lowered profit margins from increased turn over...a conundrum.

 

That said, many business do recruit and expand so clearly it can be done.

 

Good luck (and if the expansion in the 'commercial world' is important for business sustainability then ARB Approval is probably worth a punt.) Cheers..!

Paul

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17 hours ago, Dazza88 said:

Evening all, 

We run a small business down in the south east which Started in 1981 by my father.

He has in the past had 3 fully employed 2 man teams for around 15 years but has gradually over time dropped down to having one fully employed 3 man team due to not needing the stress anymore.

I have now been handed the reins and have all the spark and ambition he originally had so looking to expand.

So I’m basically looking for some advice to find out when is the right time to grow. 

We are currently booked solid through to mid/late January with regular contracts and new contracts still coming in. 

I know having two teams means needing twice the amount of work however my heart is telling me the time is right but my head is holding back?

we already have the van, chipper and climbing equipment so would just need a few tools to create a second team.

So do we continue as we are with the single team having pleanty of work ahead of us hoping that people wait for us to carry out their work as they have in the past or do we expand; gobble the work up with a second team in the hope that work carries on coming in as it is?

Any advice from anyone who has been I a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. ?

 

 

As has already been said.  Your biggest problem is always going to be finding staff unfortunately.

 

I know several companies who always sale close to the wind, but its a necessary evil if you want to expand...run through the work and risk running out, or stay stagnant.

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What reasons do you want to expand for? Whatever they are they will probably incur additional stress as a result- especially if more staff are involved.

 

theres more to expanding then taking on more staff or another team- perhaps head the buisness in a different direction, branch out into another sector. invest in some speacialist machinery that would enable you to consider work that you normally wouldn’t. Just ideas, but if you have a good nucleus of staff as it is a good man and a machine will achieve far more IMO than simply throwing more staff at something and all the stress of it.

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