Customer had to close shop can not get employees

Eay-Yup.

For years I tried to build my business, train employees play all the games. I have had only two guys I would hire back if they were available today. I just quit trying a several years ago. I take as much work as I can do by myself and that's it. I got tired of having to finish other people's work, and then do more work so I could afford to pay them for not doing it.

At one point I had three full time installers, 1 full time salesperson and a full time office assistant. I worked 80 hour weeks and made less than I do right now working part time in a crap economy.

Ditto!!!! and AMEN!!!

Same here.

Every once in a while I'll need another pair of hands and I'll hire an installer for a day. I can borrow him from a friendly competitor as long as I can give him a few days notice. I pay the boss cash $30.00 an hour. HOWEVER, after a few early experiences, I never let the guy work alone. I'm watchin him every minute. Guys been in the business over 25 years and still don't know s*it.

On a job, among other things, I had him put a contact on the front door of a shop. It was warm out and the door was propped open all day. Finished the job, and we checked all the openings and PIR's except for the front door which I figured I'd check when I did my central station check just before I leave. I told him to pack up and he could go. I pack up, put everything in the van and go back to arm the system and check the central. The front door wouldn't close all the way. He'd mounted the switch and the magnet without ever closing the door to see if it lined up. Jeeeeeeze. NOW .... I gotta get all the tools, ladder, etc out of the van. Try to drill a hole in the aluminum door right next to an existing hole without breaking through. Damn DAMMIT......!!!!! Another half hour - fortyfive minutes futzin around with it and HE'S home already !!!!

Puts a motion detector about 10 feet off the floor so that anyone walking where you'd normally expect a person to walk .... could walk right under the PIR with out setting it off. I mean ..... is it really that hard to figure out? I can't believe that me knowing what a typical pattern of a motion detector is ...makes me super smart.

Oh well..... Thus I work alone ........

Same story here make more money doing it myself. I have a couple of electrical contractors I work with who I help with fire alarms and an occasional burg and they are very fortunate they have a good crew of guys. They are smart enough to call me with questions etc. so jobs go smooth. just cant find that every where.

RHC: My experience has been pretty much the same up here in Canada. Everyone is bitching about how hard it is to find a paying job, but no one will sacrifice anything on the short term to learn a trade that in the long run will make them decent money. My son and I are starting to plan my retirement from the business and we will need a second person to replace me. I am responsible for the office work, plus service work,and he is prime for installations. However, we both share everything depending upon how busy it is at any given time.

We have brought on two hopeful people who didn't last past the first installation. They were well paid for their days work, although it actually slowed us down having to show them what to do and not do. However,both weren't interested in going any further so we are back at square one. When we need help, we go to other dealer friends who show up and help us out, and we reciprocate the favour. But this is no way to plan for the future.

Luckily we are at the account point where we can just cruise along not worrying about too much due to RMR levels. And service is blessedly minor in nature due to quality installs and careful takeovers. But the long term will present a problem unless we can solve this issue.

I say this to let you know I think this is probably an industry wide problem. The ADT's of the world definately have the advantage here since they can easily afford to hire people and keep them around when business is slow while we can't (at least not to that degree)

My "glass ceiling" comes at 1200 accounts when I will definately have to have a third party on staff....still working on that solution...:))

RHC: My experience has been pretty much the same up here in Canada. Everyone is bitching about how hard it is to find a paying job, but no one will sacrifice anything on the short term to learn a trade that in the long run will make them decent money. My son and I are starting to plan my retirement from the business and we will need a second person to replace me. I am responsible for the office work, plus service work,and he is prime for installations. However, we both share everything depending upon how busy it is at any given time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One good thing about the construction business here in quebec, its all controled and need licence to do anything..

even alarm! And if you wan tto work in electronic security you need training..

the training is given at some professional school and its free! its 1600+ hour and the kids learn electronics/electricity/burglar/camera/ip stuff/ intercom/fire/access control /ect.

end even after that training they need to work 6000 hour as an apprentice to be able to pass an exam so they could be called real security system installer..

we have about 100 newcomers in the trade from those school every years. and there is about 1000 people that are certified installer.

But still even after all that we do find bad installer

Training is something, having enough grey matter (not talking about your hair here Robert) to understand that even if you install some electronic guizmo, we are in fact selling a sens of security and peace of mind to our customer, thats what matter most.

Its not only a job, its a service, and any service should be given to its maximum, not up to "it should do the job".