Being able to "duplicate" yourself is one of the best things about this business. As of this writing in 2011, my people put in a total of about 300 hours a night, compared to my 3 or 4 (and often zero) hours a day.
Of course there are tricks of the trade as far as employees are concerned. My employee systems are one of the things I've worked very hard on over the years, and it's paid off very well. I can take vacations, days off, and sometimes not come into the office all week.
In the beginning of my business I did everything wrong when it came to employees. I hired all the wrong people, and I had no idea how to keep the good ones. I don't even want to think about all the wrong people I hired who would call in sick or wouldn't show up and not even call, and in every case it was almost always me who had to fill in and do the work. Knowing how to find the right people in the beginning of your business is going to make your life so much easier, and allow your business to grow so much faster and smoother, I can't even tell you.
We recently had a spot open up because one of our people is moving out of the area, and here's how the "find a new employee" process went:
We put our ad in Craigslist. The ad tells all about the job, and gives a link to our online application. We do have an application form on our website - as you will, too, if you purchase the System - but when we're actively looking for a new person we use a separate online form (which you also get with the System).
People saw our ad, they went to the link, printed the application, filled it out and faxed it to us. The reason we have them print it and fill it out by hand is because (1) If they go through the process of printing it, filling it out and going to a fax machine, it usually means they're serious about a job; (2) The application asks a lot of "essay" questions, and we can look at their handwriting, spelling, grammar, etc, and can get a good idea of their general communications skills; (3) The form is dated automatically when they print it, and if we see that they print it on the 1st of the month, but don't fax it in until the 10th, it's probably an indication they're not very "hungry" for a job.
We got 24 applications faxed to us within 1 week. I looked them over and picked out 8 people that I wanted to call.
I spent about 5 minutes on the phone with each person, and I made notes on their applications as we talked.
On my notes, I usually give "grades" - A, B, C, and "No Way". I keep the A's and B's, and the C's and No-Way's get filed away.
I called 5 people on a Tuesday and set up appointments with them for Saturday, each appointment 15 minutes apart. I interview at a McDonald's just a couple of miles away from my home - it's a public place, and it's easy for people to find.
4 people showed up for their appointments on time, and one didn't show up at all (I call that a successful interview, too, because people who don't show up automatically turn themselves into "No Ways"!). Two of them were definitely "A's", the 3rd one was more of a "A-B", and the 4th one turned out to be a "C". I told everyone that I would call them within a couple of days and let them know my decision.
The one I picked is a 23-year-old college student; he lives only 2 miles away from the building he will be cleaning; he holds a state track-record from high-school and is in excellent physical shape; he isn't taking so many classes that the part-time cleaning job will cut into his time for homework; he owns his own car; and he says he should be able to stay with this job until he's finished with college - 3 more years. We gave him an Employee Handbook and a copy of our training video, and he's turned out to be a great employee.
That's how to find the right people. The application form asks all the right questions, it makes it easy to pick out the people you're interested in, and it's the only reason I am able to find great employees so quickly. It allowed me to choose from 24 applicants, and yet my entire time-commitment for this process was about 3 hours.
You can find great employees, too - they're out there, and they want to work for you - just follow the steps in the JanQuest System.
