Managing your business from another state?

I would imagine the most important aspect of this strategy would be to hire the right person for the job. Someone that's reliable, trustworthy, personable, with good sales skills etc. This person would paid an good hourly rate plus commission. Unfortunately this person would start of a  tech cause I would have the funds to pay a manager and tech

Anyone ever manage their service business from out of state? It's probably a lot more difficult that it looks and filled with challenges and pit falls. Especially for an owner OP that like to control everything.

Where are you moving....you just got there?

I don't see that ever working out. It wouldn't take long for a tech that was all those things to decide that he didn't need you. He would be in business for himself in a heart beat.

Now, if you set-up a franchise it might work, but you would also have to be a jerk to make that work out as well.

Nope, I think you are stuck where you are.

You certainly can !! Aside from the things you mentioned above, get a good GPS system installed, the one which can log everything, their stops, how long they stop at that location, etc.
And let the tech know that if he screws up by taking side jobs, etc, he's gone in a heart beat !!
You should also offer bonuses if he upsells some other services and he should report the additional services done right away to you, on other words, keep him in a very short leash but make sure the money makes him happy and not want to do anything else.
When you get here to Whittier with the moving truck, let me know, I'll swing by to help you unload, I'll bring 5 guys from Home Depot

I was in Hawaii until you snapped me out of it Mil.

That's what I was thinking DP, pay him well and make sure he has some skin in the game. My main role would be to pump up the volume enough to hire a manager which would hopefully be the tech.

A guy here tried that, only he was 4 hours away. Just closed it down.

It can be done easily as long as its someone you trust and is driven by money....he has to have a percentage deal. My take would be something like a 30% partner or something close. this way he is money driven and can do well also...if they just work and have no "big gain" whaaaaa whaaaa whaaaaaaaaa.

I didn't read all the responses, but man, I don't really see that working long term. If you could make it work and have true success at it, I'd say go into a more lucrative biz and make it work there..

But I'm a professional sceptic , that has a hard time even hiring help I can oversee, let alone not being able to.

I almost did it a couple of years ago, not other state but my old service area that I still have the phone number, it was 5 hours drive from LA but I had doubt about my former employee, I decided that it wasn't a good time but if I have someone that I can fully trust, I would do it in a heart beat !

dp1 wrote:You certainly can !! Aside from the things you mentioned above, get a good GPS system installed, the one which can log everything, their stops, how long they stop at that location, etc.
And let the tech know that if he screws up by taking side jobs, etc, he's gone in a heart beat !!
You should also offer bonuses if he upsells some other services and he should report the additional services done right away to you, on other words, keep him in a very short leash but make sure the money makes him happy and not want to do anything else.
When you get here to Whittier with the moving truck, let me know, I'll swing by to help you unload, I'll bring 5 guys from Home Depot

Hence my point about you would have to be a jerk to make it work.

I kike Devons idea of a partnership. That would definitely allow him to have some skin in the game and encourage growth. I'm not sure how long that partnership would last before he decides to bolt.

Mo wrote:I kike Devons idea of a partnership. That would definitely allow him to have some skin in the game and encourage growth. I'm not sure how long that partnership would last before he decides to bolt.

One good season at best in my opinion.

Just ask yourself if you were that guy. How long would you operate that way?

I did it Rob! I was the other guy....I made good money and it went south when the owner decided to cut me back to 25%. He thought 33% was too much after a while, he learned it was well worth it after I left.....I was the other guy you wanted! He called and begged me for about a year to come back. All he had to do was spend his percentage and not ever stress over the company.

very do able and its done everyday by hundreds of thousands of companies.  

but you have to have real systems in place for quality control,  equipment maintenance,   booking,  etc  


The easiest best way for a smaller company is if you have a family member in that area who needs work and is trustworthy.


once your guys are trained a program like House Call pro would be a must, it would handle about 95% of your headaches

Devon07 wrote:I did it Rob! I was the other guy....I made good money and it went south when the owner decided to cut me back to 25%. He thought 33% was too much after a while, he learned it was well worth it after I left.....I was the other guy you wanted! He called and begged me for about a year to come back. All he had to do was spend his percentage and not ever stress over the company.

I am surprised....you might be the exception to the rule. Unless it was a franchise, I just don't see it working. I know that I would never have done it for more than a year at best unless the owner was providing something more than just a percentage.

33% is low unless he was paying all the expenses

33% was mine! I literally took 33% out of the total income. It wasn't low at all....as a matter a fact, he seen how much I made and it bothered him so he changed the game plan and lost....it was set up with the perfect dynamics until he changed it. He was making about the same without working except for the monthly books.

That is what I don't get though, you made 33%, but did all the work except the books. At what point did you realize that you could make 100% without him?

For me, the owner would have to supply an awful lot to the mix for me to do all the work for 33%. He would have to supply me with a building, vehicles, equipment, inventory, etc. before I would be happy with that deal.....even then I would leave in a couple of years.

Seems like you guys are forgetting the expenses, there are fixed expenses ( insurances, city licenses, workers comps, etc ) and there are variable expenses ( fuel, equipments maintenance and parts, depreciation, cleaning solutions, taxes, etc ).

After all the expenses depending on how much profits ( that determines how much uncle Sam take ), the total costs can be 35% to 60% because taxes is the biggest one ( around 35% for sole proprietor ).

That being said, I wouldn't do 30% or more, I would do max 20% with some bonus at the end of the year to make sure he gets almost 50 - 50 split after all the expenses, I would show him everything to make sure he knows I'm treating him as a partner, rather than as a worker. But I would take care of phone call duty off of his hand to minimize "doing jobs on the side" risk.

I used to make 20% from total gross income a while back when I managed a cleaning company and I worked my butt off upselling, he used to make $ 25 - $ 30 grand a month just from my van alone ( me with a helper ), but that wasn't out of state owner situation. I was very happy with making 60k a year, but then the owner started disrespecting me when I complained about another tech using my van on sundays and didn't clean it up at the end of his shift, that's when I bolted out of there.

I still dont make 100%...if you do, we need to talk.

DP...+1

DP...you and I had the same issues. funny how they realize they messed up letting us become unhappy.

I wasn't implying that you kept the 100%, just that you weren't sharing any of the income with another person.

You also hit an issue right on the head that doesn't get talked about much and that is keeping an employee happy. There are not many business owners out there that understand that part and is one of the reasons we all lose employees....often over something that seemed trivial to us.

I lost a really good employee a few years back because he placed his outside activities ahead of work too much (IMHO). He was in his lat 20's yet he played paint ball on the weekends and even competed regionally.

We had a large hotel job scheduled that was very important to my business at the time and he told me he would not be coming to work (3 days notice). The reason was that his paintball team had a chance to qualify for some national tournament and it was over the same weekend.

I gave him a lecture about being an adult, honoring his obligations....you know the basic Dad talk and he gave me his resignation. He was the best employee I ever had to this day, but I couldn't stand that his priorities weren't the same as mine.

There are many who would have done the same thing as I did, but looking back, I really shouldn't expect an employee to place the same priority on the business as I did.

Little things matter, like respect and flexibility. I was used to giving orders in the Marines and not worrying about what the privates in the company thought about the plan, but it doesn't always translate like that in the private sector.

Usually pay makes them get in tune with your priority.....give them just more than they could get somewhere else....when they prove they are worthy...kick it up!