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Subbing work out/renting/selling other options

adamangler

Wakefield Window Warrior
Messages
4,263
Location
Wakefield
Does anyone sub work out ? How do you find it?

Is it a better option than selling or what about renting how does that work exactly ?

I have a part time employee but he is wanting to go self employed in a month or and has asked if I would sub him some work.

It works for me as I have a bit too much for myself solo and to be honest I'm not too bothered about going back on my own as employing is a headache and it's been in the back of my mind to go back solo i must admit...

So would subbing be a good idea? Or better to just sell off what I don't need and keep the best stuff.

Cheers 

 
Just started subbing out this month. It's very lucrative compared to the amount of work needed, but as always you need good workers. 

I will need the work back for myself in a year, otherwise I'd have sold it or given it away.

 
I sub out some work it runs fairly smoothly but in all honesty I don't make that much from it as I gave the guy a good percentage rate.

To make it worth while it needs to be 60/40 at most 70/30 the higher percentage going to them.

 
Isn’t subbing just basically renting but with all the legal jargon? I’ve heard it go as low as 75/25 round here. Also you need to be able to trust the person doing the work so they don’t lose it all. There’s a family of cleaners round my way that rent an absolute sh1t load of work out. They run their rounds more like gangsters and are still stuck in the old patch days. Most cleaners with any sense won’t touch there work with a barge pole but the ones that do are too scared to mess em about. They even go round checking to make sure they aren’t picking up any customers in between there work as they class them as theirs. Ha ha. Madness. Before I got a loan to buy my work I rented for a while. This was off my old boss so there was already a massive amount of trust and respect between us both so it worked perfectly. I don’t think I’d be able to trust anyone with my work if I didn’t know em but that’s just me. Although all successful businessmen take risks so it may be something to think about.


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Does anyone sub work out ? How do you find it?

Is it a better option than selling or what about renting how does that work exactly ?

I have a part time employee but he is wanting to go self employed in a month or and has asked if I would sub him some work.

It works for me as I have a bit too much for myself solo and to be honest I'm not too bothered about going back on my own as employing is a headache and it's been in the back of my mind to go back solo i must admit...

So would subbing be a good idea? Or better to just sell off what I don't need and keep the best stuff.

Cheers 
So employing really wasnt for you then Adam? Or did your employee realise that going alone was the way forward?

when subbing what if he loses a customer or over time most of them he wouldn’t be obligated to replace them would he?

Being self employed means any new customer he picks up would be his so he could start to build his round pretty quick and soon give you back your customers or what is left of them.

im Interested in this thread as I know with a small push I could get enough work either to sub out as I’m not sure whether to take another persons on.

 
Don't forget if you're the one collecting payment then paying out to the 'leasee' then this still counts towards your VAT threshold 
When renting work out you have nothing to do with it bar the occasional spot check. The only cash you will see is your cut. So if you was renting at 75/25 you could rent out £6000 per week and you would only come into contact with and see £1500 which would be enough to keep the vat man off your back and also a good wedge for doing next to nothin except supplying someone with some work.


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When renting work out you have nothing to do with it bar the occasional spot check. The only cash you will see is your cut. So if you was renting at 75/25 you could rent out £6000 per week and you would only come into contact with and see £1500 which would be enough to keep the vat man off your back and also a good wedge for doing next to nothin except supplying someone with some work.


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Never heard of anyone doing it that way.

So the customer gets a new invoice from a different cleaner and you expect them to give you free money for doing absolutely none of the work? Why would any cleaner agree to such a deal..

The 20-25% you can take is for maintaining customer contact and sending invoices and taking the risk of slow payers etc, in my opinion. If not it should rather be sold.

 
SO essentially with renting is you are giving the renter a load of work, they are running it as though they are their own customers and just handing you over a cut?

so its pretty much like a franchise then really?

I wonder if there are any legal documents you could draw up to protect your work? however enforcing said contracts would be almost impossible i would have though.

 
Never heard of anyone doing it that way.
 
So the customer gets a new invoice from a different cleaner and you expect them to give you free money for doing absolutely none of the work? Why would any cleaner agree to such a deal..
 
The 20-25% you can take is for maintaining customer contact and sending invoices and taking the risk of slow payers etc, in my opinion. If not it should rather be sold.
They are paying you a percentage to do your work because they can’t or don’t want to get work of their own. Many say it’s dead money just the same as renting property I suppose.


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SO essentially with renting is you are giving the renter a load of work, they are running it as though they are their own customers and just handing you over a cut?
 
so its pretty much like a franchise then really?
 
I wonder if there are any legal documents you could draw up to protect your work? however enforcing said contracts would be almost impossible i would have though.
Exactly that. It’s common practise to do things like this in my area although there are a lot of trust issues involved and I’ve never heard of anyone drawing up legal documents to protect their self. It’s all verbally agreed and that’s why there’s so many grey areas with it.


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Its a great idea if it works, but too many potential problems with it.

I think you would want to do this with work you dont mind losing, its not even the window cleaner who is renting the work that would be the problem, its the customers, when they have been cleaned by the other cleaner for years and got to know him as their window cleaner whos to say they will want you back?

I think it would definately need legal contracts drawing up to protect yourself.

Either that or like i said make sure its with work that you dont mind losing too much.

 
When renting work out you have nothing to do with it bar the occasional spot check. The only cash you will see is your cut. So if you was renting at 75/25 you could rent out £6000 per week and you would only come into contact with and see £1500 which would be enough to keep the vat man off your back and also a good wedge for doing next to nothin except supplying someone with some work.


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Not a hope in hell mate!  I'd still take care of all the collections, getting in the money, and making sure the custys are happy.  No way I would hand over a customer list 'carte blanche' and hope the renter turns up in the pub to give me some cash.  

Based on your version of how it would work Dave the person 'renting' will be uttering the words 'what a mug' as he walks out the pub with your customer base and carte blanche authority to do as he pleases.  

If it was £1k per week of work for example on say a 25 / 75 split run my way at the end of the week when all works done and say £800 is paid by customers the 'renter' would then receive his 75% being £600 of the monies collected.  He would get the rest once customer paid.  

Doing it your way dave leaves them open to walking in the pub saying 'oh yeah, only did £300 this week' and handing you £75...  and as you have zero control over the round now nothing you can do to check up on it.  

 
I've been thinking about this for a round I've got near J38 M1 that's a bit too far for me. I've got plenty of people I could ask who may be interested in doing it but there are issues even with honest people. I think the only way it would work is if it was 100% GC. The guy renting would get his cut (75%) sent by Bank transfer on the day GC pays out so he doesn't deal with the customers or payments. Also he would have to look after the round- as in he would have to add new custys to the round from walk ups. You would also have to canvass a bit to keep it healthy.

To make it work you'd need a written agreement for a non compete on the streets where you operate.

Otherwise the round would slowly die as they always evolve over time and more would be added to his own list and your work would dwindle.

Enforcing this could be impossible though if the guy was dishonest.

 
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