Secretary wages?

[wood cutter]

Pffft, I'd do it for £10 an hour

[ReubenHayes]

Thinking of taking on a secretary to handle the phone, take messages, sort out advertising, wages, take details of jobs and so on - just a small crew, not a huge business.

 

I'm wondering how much would be a fair daily/weekly wage for such work?

 

It all depends on how much you expecting them to do. If its just answering the phone, taking messages, advertising, wages etc then I would expect just above minimum wage (depending on how busy it is).

 

The main question is how much of your time is currently taken up with these tasks? sit down and go through how many calls you get a day, how much time you spend on paper work. There's no point paying someone full time to sit around waiting for the phone to ring, or go through all the tasks in one morning!

 

If you do go for a full time admin role, think about what else they can do for you. You may have to pay more for their time, but you may get a better person and better returns. Could you use them to promote your business? marketing letters, phone calls, even going out meeting local businesses. Can they do all of your book keeping, ordering of new equipment (maybe have the time to speak with suppliers to get better deals etc).

 

You could look at getting a part time office staff, to come in for 3 hours a day. This would give you time to get out of the office in the morning or afternoon and get on with your tasks.

 

Remote workers are also handy and I really would look at costs etc. They will be limited to what they can provide for you, but they are cheaper as they can work for several companies at the same time. The points to check would be origin of the staff, and the internet connection of that area. Basically you divert your phone to an internet number so that they can pick it up. If its a bad or slow internet area, then it will be faint, crackly, slow responses etc. This can be off putting for some people, just think of the call centres that you phone (most of these run on the same system), sometimes you can hardly hear them or the line goes quiet when you speak.

 

Apart from that, a secretary can be a great asset as you can get on developing the company.

[treeman22tyger]

I have a secretary, and she is so much hassle. she brings her kids in to the office, eats my food, drinks my pop, sits around all day playing on facebook and playing games on her kindle.

But I cant sack her coz then who else would I sleep with and get to wash my clothes.

 

The only way to sack her would be divorce!!!! lol