The next step...an employee

[daenterpri]

So, I've been pondering the idea of an employee for a while, but I'm not sure in which area of my shop. Out of Sales, Production Manager, Installer, and Graphic Designer, I feel like a graphic designer has the most demand in our shop and would be the easiest to come by. It would free up a lot of my time not to have to design, send customers mockups and come up with ideas for new products.

But I'm looking for other opinions. What was your first step in hiring someone? What is the most practical position for a sign shop to hire for to start?

I feel like the other positions besides Graphic Designer have different needs depending on the month, are more specialized and harder to come by.

Thoughts?

 

[Billct2]

The best addition for a small shop is an all round assistant, meaning design and production.
Least useful Sales

 

[daenterpri]

The best addition for a small shop is an all round assistant, meaning design and production.
Least useful Sales

Ya, that makes sense.

 

[Sign Up Graphics]

Sign Up Graphics

Yup! design and production.

 

[Caitlin]

My .02...
I'm no boss but I was brought in for general signage production with next to no graphic design experience and none in illustrator or composer which I use most often now so it was definitely uphill. I think you can teach someone new how to install vinyl to your preferences but graphic design experience would definitely be a plus. And as Bill said, especially for a small shop someone who can learn the ins and outs of a number of things would probably be the most helpful.

Good luck!

 

[SD&F]

I agree, you should hire an all around person. Have them fill in where there is need and show them the ways.
If you are in need of a graphic designer, then hire them and you continue to fill in.

 

[kanini]

Yep, as said above. I hired (my first employee) a graphic designer who does design AND production. She also takes care of the customers coming in to pick up/order something and I must say that was my best hire ever, took away a lot of my stress and boosted production. But make sure you try out the person before hiring on full time, because I've also had the bad ones and they take more than they give... Good luck, if you find the right person it will be a boost for you and your shop!

 

[ironchef]

We just hired a guy that recently graduated design school, he doesnt know corel draw or omega, but quickly picking up on it, he was trained in photoshop. Were also training him on production. I wonder if anyone else out there pays designers extra ontop of the hourly wage? For example, i gave him a brochure job to take home to work on(extra credit if you will), so should i give him a percent or some cash? If so how much? Most of the big design work gets done after hours, during the day its mostly layouts and production. So i figure ill keep giving him homework sort of speak, i just want to be fair

Feel free to pm me, thanks

 

[TheSnowman]

My biggest bottleneck in my (one man) shop is design. I'm not good at it, so I sub it out. I find even at times that it still takes a ton of my time going back and fourth between the designer and the customer at times. It'd be nice to have someone that could sit down with the customer and get a feel for what they want, while I'm cranking out the production end of stuff. Then again, I like the production end, and don't like the customer part too much, so that could just be a personal feeling too.

 

[GB2]

What was your first step in hiring someone? Thoughts?

Your first step in hiring someone should be to evaluate the entire process required for having employees. You need a payroll process, workers comp insurance, an employee handbook, an internet and computer use policy, a non-compete policy, a non-disclosure policy, a personal cell phone use policy, a documented disiplinary procedure and more. You need to be completely familiar with all the laws regarding employees in your state. You can get great employees or you can get terrible employees but if you don't know what you are doing and don't have correct documented procedures, you can end up in a nightmare situation.

 

[Mosh]

PITA!!!! I have had up to 11 people working for me at one time. I am now a one man show and plan to stay that way. Way less stress!!!