6 Reasons to Use Subcontractors vs Employees

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You can also get access to free resources on our website here: paintingbusinesspro.com/ Working with subcontractors will make running and building your business so much easier.
I was talking to someone the other day who said “is it because it costs less”.
It actually has nothing to do with costs - and it doesn’t cost less with money.
It costs less with time and effort.
Let’s look at a few of the benefits to utilizing subcontractors in your business instead of employees.
→ Commitment.
Employees are working a “job” and if they get a better offer, they might just leave… maybe even leave the industry or go work for another company.
Subcontractors literally run a business. This is their business, they’ve registered it, they have insurance, and are likely even employing other people.
That means less turnover, and less re-hiring and re-training.
→ Equipment
Subcontractors have their own equipment. If you hire employees, you need to provide them with equipment which means over $1,000 to buy the equipment for a new 2 man crew.
This saves you money, and saves you time maintaining and keeping track of your equipment.
→ Training
You need to train any new employees that come on your team to ensure they are delivering a quality product.
The agreement you have with a subcontractor is for them to deliver on the contract. They get paid when the job is done and the contract is fulfilled.
If the job isn’t done, is sloppy, or the customer isn’t happy… The job isn’t done yet.
Their pay is contingent on delivering a quality product.
This saves enormous time training, and delegates the training accountability to your subcontractors.
→ Obligation to Provide Work
If you have employees, they are counting on you for work. If you don’t have work for them this week, what are they going to do?
They're going to leave and go somewhere that provides them consistent work.
Subcontractors run a business and if you don’t have a job, they will get one somewhere else.
Ideally, you want to keep them busy (that’s how you keep the best crews), but you aren’t going to lose them FOR GOOD if you go a week without work.
This takes a huge organizational burden off of you as the business owner.
→ Ramping Up & Ramping Down
We are in a seasonal business. At our peak in the summer, Foothills Painting will have over 120 painters working on jobsites each day.
In the slow season, that might drop to 20-40 guys working daily.
If we were an all-employee business, we would have to turn down work in the summer (when it’s busy) or lay people off in the winter.
This creates a huge burden on a business, or limits growth potential.
Learn more about how to utilize subcontractors and build winning relationships and partnerships with great crews.
Check out the Subcontracting playlist we’ve created on KZbin:
• Residential Subcontrac...
And remember, the best training material we have isn’t posted free on KZbin.
If you really want to master this business, check out the PBP Training Program:
paintingbusinesspro.com/pbp-t...

[@user-ci5si8jz5h]

Great video and tips

[@griceldacruz5751]

Hi Eric, thanks for the information

[@therealkakitron]

Been subbing out all our paint jobs for 6 years now and it's awesome.

[@patriotgaming-xn7bl]

How do you get to that part?

[@therealkakitron]

@@patriotgaming-xn7bl for me, it was out of need. I used to do all the painting all by myself, but of course I was only one person. One day, a friend of a client called me and said she wanted me to paint her house, so I went to look at it, and it turned out to be a gigantic mansion. There was no way I could paint all that by myself, or I'd be there for months painting. I called a cousin who is a GC and he gave me the phone number of a painter who has a crew of like 15 guys. I asked him how much he'd charge me to paint the house, he gave me a number, and I put some more for me on top and sold it for that amount. I was still at the job site but only occasionally to supervise and make sure everything was to my standard. They finished, I got paid and realized that was my calling. F painting, I liked selling and doing the customer service. I never looked back. It's been over 6 years and I've done a few tweaks here and there, but I haven't painted anymore and business is good. I get to spend time with my family, exercise, eat well, and I love it.

[@andrepastor4844]

Sub Contractors also make much better money than employees. If you find a great worker that is not a sub contractor, you can also help them set up their business and help them become a sub contractor. That really helps people move forward and develop their own business and partnership with you. It also makes them feel great, as business owners.

[@LittleChurro]

Also a lot of benefits to being a sub as well, overhead is much lower and if you can find enough contractors and your own work to keep you busy you don’t worry about marketing or sales at all just production

[@PaintingBusinessPro]

Great point! We're always looking to make life easier for our subs as well.

[@kozakwarrior7375]

What about image / brand so many tradesman are rolling w logos on their trucks and shirts there's got to be a way to navigate that when I am trying to use my brand as the image.The customer called xyz but then abc showed up they're probably gonna ask what the deal is...

[@PaintingBusinessPro]

We recommend being transparent in the fact that you use subcontractors when asked. There's nothing wrong with it - it's how you deliver the information.

[@hattrick257]

Most big companies use subcontractors, not just in painting. You can have an agreement for them not to use any clothing with their logos when at one of your jobs.

[@Knute1232001]

I wish it was only $1000 in equipment for a new 2 man crew. It will be over that just for the various ladders of different sizes. Another $2k for the sprayer, gun, tips, and hoses. I think outfitting a crew is more like $5k. I live in a small market and can't sub, I envy all of you in big markets that can just sell a job and throw a sub on it. Employee model is such a pain.

[@PaintingBusinessPro]

I have members in small markets who are doing great with employee crews. Rather than complaining about it, start to question your process and methods and work on answering the question "how do I get so good at this that it's not hard anymore?" This isn't an attack - but people in big markets have challenges, too. The principle here is: complaining or being frustrated is worthless. And there IS a solution to it. That's what you get paid to solve. Solve this challenge and you unlock new levels and income opportunities in your business.

[@MrBiff123]

So your saying Sub so you don’t have to really deal with anything hard about owning a business. Just take a little bit off the top for yourself for finding the job.

[@MrBiff123]

Not actually a painting company your basically a marketing and estimating service.

[@PaintingBusinessPro]

Building a business can be plenty hard. And if you think this is how subcontracting works, you’re misinformed. What you’re inferring that I’m doing is not what I’m doing. Although some people may do it that way. I believe in building a strong healthy business with amazing partnerships with your subcontractors and crews that creates success for all parties involved.

[@heyyou7536]

When my customer hires me to do the job they expect me to be there. It’s part of building a relationship and gaining repeats and referrals. Granted, not going to build a multimillion dollar company this way, but I’m a tradesman first.

[@heyyou7536]

@@MrBiff123middle man driving up the price for the customer.