Why using subs isn't a bad thing

Why using subcontractors doesn't have to be a bad word

We all have heard horror stories about subcontractors, they messed up our yard, or house or insert any other area of your home or business but the same can be said for employee-based companies as well.

We had been there, 25 plus employees working each day, missing work, calling off, their truck broke down, they have no license or any other excuse in the book. Jobs took forever because it didn't matter to them how prompt they completed jobs, they were paid hourly.

Jobs became longer, schedules compacted onto each other, no one was seemingly happy except for the painters who were making money with no cares in the world until one day when it all changed.

Pay For Performance

We decided to try a production-based pay, now the first thing I knew that would happen is we would lose the underperforming painters, I didn't realize how quick though. When someone realizes they aren't as good as they think I believe the realization the feel hits their ego hard. They blame the company, they point fingers at anyone but themselves, they have zero accountability, for us, this was all a precursor to using subcontractors in our painting business, just like many other companies you use each day such as the cable company, contractors, landscapers, roofers they all may use "subs"

The switch

Once all the underperforming painters were gone it was time to make a switch to using subcontractors, I have to admit I totally changed my perception of this practice from over the years, once I saw there were companies that didn't want to deal with marketing, sales or the other business aspects and solely wanted to perform the work we had a match that was perfect. We are good at finding top talent and making sure they are successful, to be able to do this on your own as a client is a tough task, so we took it all away, we hire, fire, schedule and manage the project, being a liaison between the painters and the client to make sure it is a successful project.

Not always smooth

It wasn't all roses, there were mistakes, bad contractors, jobs that we had to correct just like every other painting contractor.

But what happened is one day we had all these great contractors around us, bringing their positive attitudes, great work and low and behold jobs were getting done at a pace we always expected. Great review after the review came streaming in and in the office, the happiness meter went way up.

Sometimes the preconceived notions about things are completely not true and this was a huge one for us.

The S word

So the next time you hear the word remember it is just a different way to pay someone, a sub receives a 1099 and that is the only difference, you should never feel any sort of different experience when working with any subcontractor, remember they only want to make you happy too. While the other employees are milking the time our subs can come in and get the real work done.