Hi Josh,

 

Thanks for your response. A little history is I started changing to employees beginning in 2007 and had everyone as employees in 2008. They have all been part time except for the one who does the day to day operations in the office along with pet sitting. I am now looking to make several pet sitters full time and was really wanting to hear what others have done. We are doing it slowly and the pet sitters know that we are going to build them slowly to full time. I am having a planning session in a couple of weeks with my business consultant and adviser's and we will develop this more fully.
 

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my response:


Hi Sharon,



Sounds great and it’s definitely a balancing act.


Knowing the sitter or walker’s monthly bills I find is really helpful in terms of what they expect/need.


If they go full-time they’ll obviously be looking to you as their end all be all so that might mean eating money sometimes to ensure they earn enough.


If works gets slow I sometimes offer very low “introductory” rates to new clients to make sure the routes stay packed and I price the rates to pay the employees and pay payroll liability only.


Sometimes I utilize employees’ off the job talents onto the job for pay (if a walker is a good photographer I have them take pics in the company, etc.)


Overall I think you’ll enjoy the shift to full-time because the employees are more engaged with their job and I find full-time employees are more sharp too.


On the down side you as the owner assume more responsibility to make sure they can pay their rent, bills, etc.


Lastly I assume you have workers’ comp and disability insurance? If not I’d definitely ask your accountant or lawyer about it because I think you should definitely get it. If anyone gets injured and you don’t file, they could come back years later and say they were disfigured on the job and sue your business into bankruptcy.


Best, Josh




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