Sturdy Numbers

The hire test

Can you afford your next tech?

Answer six quick questions about your shop and get a straight answer in about a minute. Your dollar figures never leave this page.

Your shop

If it swings a lot, use a slow month. If you lose money most months, put a minus sign in front.

Wage, payroll taxes, insurance and the truck.

Your dollar figures never leave this page. We only get your name, email, trade, truck count, how booked out you are and your result. We'll email you a copy, and Frank may follow up once.

What the test checks

First, whether the work is there to keep another truck busy. A tech without work waiting mostly adds cost.

Then whether the shop can carry him while he gets up to speed. We assume he brings in nothing extra his first three months, so the answer leans careful.

HVAC shops also need cash to ride out a slow season, so we look for three months of his cost still in the bank after that ramp-up. For plumbing, one month.

On a Gauges dashboard the same test runs on your real books every month, with the work he brings in counted. See Gauges