Firewood Employee

[scbk]

Also if someone is on your books (rather than self employed) you will need to provide all their ppe, mess facilities, paid holidays, sick pay etc

[Joy Yeomans]

well, this is a good thread, and something weve often gone over many times over the years, from now on in if your employing someone, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you will see that your profit dwindles and your repairs increase - UNLESS - you can find some good lads or lasses, which are few and far between, as the best are already self employed who can work and do repairs as they go if need be, look after the kit as if it was their own and work from the time they get in the yard til the time they finish - and past if required.

 

keep guards on machinery, keep staff trained up, insurances paid up, pay men a decent wage, and more firewood men just doing it for pin money out there, and see how your profit margins hold up.

 

joe public doesnt want to know that our insurances costs are 3k with cs30/31 for our young lad just costing £750 and having a week off paid to do it, and repairs to machinery in the thous., with hubby off with stress and yet they still want logs for £80m3 and we struggle to get that sometimes.

 

finding sales/work then goes to a very urgent requirement to pay wages/bills/mortgage - if i were you dave just stick to small scale unless you are getting big, employ someone on a casual basis who is perhaps semi retired, but if this is only a sideline to you you could put someone on full time and sitback and let them run it if you dont need to .

 

 

just my two penneth

 

joy

[Fahrenheit]

Having someone self employed or employing someone isn't just something you choose either. If the person your using is coming to the same premises every day and you provide tools, equipment, have set times he's required to start and finish, uniforms.......basically he answers to you, he cannot be classed as self employed. You must employ him and pay the relevant taxes.

[gensetsteve]

Having someone self employed or employing someone isn't just something you choose either. If the person your using is coming to the same premises every day and you provide tools, equipment, have set times he's required to start and finish, uniforms.......basically he answers to you, he cannot be classed as self employed. You must employ him and pay the relevant taxes.

 

 

If he has his own expenses and provides some or all of tools required and works less than 60% of his time for you he is self employed.

 

Lets face it you get a slap on the wrist for rape and murder in this country. So employing someone in a grey area or running your tractor on red for an hour when it should white is unlikely to be a hanging offence.

[Dave Martin]

Dave I did not realise you had reach the turn over to justify someone full time on the cards. I have about 6 self employed people who come from all walks of life. Common sense and safety come first output second. With six contacts you can normally get 2-3 people per day when busy. I find if people do days of processing they loose interest and get fatigued.

 

Thats right Steve, my turnover ( only started selling last November ) does not justify a full time member of staff but I have come to realise that I am spending to much time on logs and not enough time on trying to earn a serious income. I operate my Firewood business from home and have invested a fair bit into it in the way of a building and machinery etc. and I am confident that it will be a success and earn money up to a certain level but everyone keeps telling me that labouring chopping logs is not where my talents lie. I feel that it will soon be time for me to pull back from the physical side of the logs a little in order to concentrate on other things in addition to marketing the firewood better..... and also Steve when you comment on your age I am older and no one works at the pace that I do and for as long

[Dave Martin]

well, this is a good thread, and something weve often gone over many times over the years, from now on in if your employing someone, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you will see that your profit dwindles and your repairs increase - UNLESS - you can find some good lads or lasses, which are few and far between, as the best are already self employed who can work and do repairs as they go if need be, look after the kit as if it was their own and work from the time they get in the yard til the time they finish - and past if required.

 

keep guards on machinery, keep staff trained up, insurances paid up, pay men a decent wage, and more firewood men just doing it for pin money out there, and see how your profit margins hold up.

 

joe public doesnt want to know that our insurances costs are 3k with cs30/31 for our young lad just costing £750 and having a week off paid to do it, and repairs to machinery in the thous., with hubby off with stress and yet they still want logs for £80m3 and we struggle to get that sometimes.

 

finding sales/work then goes to a very urgent requirement to pay wages/bills/mortgage - if i were you dave just stick to small scale unless you are getting big, employ someone on a casual basis who is perhaps semi retired, but if this is only a sideline to you you could put someone on full time and sitback and let them run it if you dont need to .

 

 

just my two penneth

 

joy

 

And your two penneth worth is much appreciated Joy. Your post has highlighted allot of the options that I am debating.

 

As I have mentioned before I have been an employer in a previous business and it was always my policy to pay people what they were worth from minimum wage to a good salary with a company car to lock them in, but lets face it we all know that more often than not employing someone creates many problems but its a business that I would like to keep going but cant afford to devote so much of my time to.

[rovers90]

When I had a meeting with Businesslink last year they stated if someone turns up at your premises to work and uses your equipment they are an employee. If they use their own gear and sort out their work schedule they are self employed. So a "self employed" person turning up at your yard, working all day on your processor, using your chainsaw and delivering in your vehicle would be classed as an employee.

 

The best way to be covered is by employing them on a zero hour contract so you can just call them in as and when necessary. Businesslink can supply a template for this type of contract.

 

Apparently, the Revenue bankrupted a local builder who for many years had used self employed plasterers. They decided as the builder arranged all their work, he told them when and where to be and supplied the raw materials then they were employees and therefore claimed unpaid tax for a number of years.

 

Might be useful for you to have a chat with Businesslink.

[Fahrenheit]

Thanks, that was exactly my point. I used to be an aircraft engineer. The flying club i worked at had around 15 flying instructors. They were classed as self employed by the aeroclub. The tax man looked into it and decided there was no way they could be classed as self employed as the club arranged their work, they had fixed hours, they had a uniform, they worked from the same place every day.....etc.

 

They had to pay in excess of £850,000.00 in taxes they'd avoided. Also they had to employ all of the staff and pay them the holiday and other things they owed. Ended up over a million pounds owed. Slap on the wrists indeed!

[DN22 Gardening]

i have two lads who come in and do as much, or as little as they like.

 

they get £15-00 per cube split.

 

just got back from my hols and they'd done 30 cube

[windfall]

i have two lads who come in and do as much, or as little as they like.

 

they get £15-00 per cube split.

 

just got back from my hols and they'd done 30 cube

 

I like this, simple and effective!

 

But by split do you mean cross cutting and then splitting the rings or just splitting a stock pile of rings?