Adventures with Lyrical: Buying a Business (REPOST)

Wuwei_sl said:

Good call. Merits aside, in his current state he would have been a significant liability to your company.

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Right. In the last month, he'd done an about face. A couple of weeks ago, I reminded him that he was just an apprentice, and that if his performance dropped any further, he'd be out of a job. His performance got much, much worse since then.

I had to talk to him from 1-4 pm yesterday about his feelings, and then after he left, got more texts on his feelings. He felt I was holding him down (a Black man holding a White man down, now that's progress), but his paperwork was a mess. He'd sell a bunch of work, and then forget what he sold, and have to rifle through the papers for 15 minutes. It's not that hard, you mark "DO" at the top of the estimate form. Crew Leaders would give them his completed work, and he'd lose it. Even worse, was he'd give the improper diagnosis just to make a buck. On one job, the customer had a major infestation in his yard, and he gave them a diagnosis that ignored the cause of the infestation. He charged the customer $1,400 knowing that the infestation was going to just spread back to what we treated. A few months from now, the customer would be charged again. My rep has been built because I give the real diagnosis, and not what is more profitable for me. He wanted me to pat him on the back for a job well done, and I told him all he did was rip the customer off.

Tarrant_sl said:

Well thats too bad, both for you and for him. Hopefully you're able to find someone decent to replace him.

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We'll be fine. I haven't run bids in a year since I had two people doing it full time. We've been so busy, I've had to do it myself. I went out with my Manager on bids one day this week. Apparently, I make him nervous on customer estimates. He did a pisspoor job of selling (as in not explaining one feature and benefit). He literally handed the customer the estimate form, and they signed up. I think he closed 40% of his bids that day, without building any value. And we tend to be higher than the competition.

I closed 100% of the customers I talked to on Wednesday, after having not run a bid in a year and being rusty. My selling system is pretty easy, I think probably any moron can do it. And my rep is that if we mess it up, we fix it, customers already know we aren't running. Between that and the advertising (TV, radio and billboard), people have a very favorable view of us. I've read research that said advertising can increase a customer's view by 25%. In practice, I've had customers I've never met sign up, because they say if we can afford to be on TV, we must be doing something right. And I've had referrals sent to me by people that have never used us, but have seen our ads. Anyway, I pulled youngblood off of the street, I can do it again. Now that I have GPS in company vehicles, I can make sure a new hire isn't screwing off. There's accountability. My only concern, as it was with YB a year ago, is can he get the pricing right? It took six months of trial and error to get his pricing in line with reality. And usually, he was too low.

I have two candidates right now, that are vouched for by current employees. They have more technical experience, and more years in the business. The problem with those types of employees, they can be stuck in their ways. They know a lot, but think they know it all. So I set the tone from the first interview, that they need to be willing to learn it my way. I'm the biggest company in my area for a reason. When I hire guys from smaller companies, they tend to do it the way they've learned it, and those ways are why the companies they come from are so small.

On a side note, the company will make $40k profit this month. I'm saving money so I can add another crew.

opiate82_sl said:

I also recently had to deal with a drugged up employee. I just caught a dude stealing cash out of the tills at my business. Been working for me for 5+ years, but just recently picked up a heroin habit I guess. Or I should say re-picked up as he apparently had drug issues prior to his working for me.

Worst part is I'm not sure how much he got away with because my idiot management staff kept making up for the cash shortages with tip money. Had to have a long chat with them about how they were basically deceiving me and on top of that they basically allowed him to steal from their fellow employees rather than me for who knows how long. If they would have done their jobs the right way he would have been caught much sooner and I would have the options of recouping some of the cash via insurance and/or prosecuting him. Best I can surmise it was basically $20 here, $40 there, over the course of a couple of months so maybe a couple of grand. Not much I can do about it w/o a paper trail though.

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I try not to take stealing personal any more. When it pops up, you deal with it and move on. And yeah, a new drug habit will make the best employees steal from you.

Youngblood showed up at the office today, acting crazy. If it happens again, I'll have to get the police involved.

OneofOne_sl said:

Pissed off asking for his job back? Or just warble garble on drugs bullshit?

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More like the latter. He claims he left equipment here, and we've only found one piece of it. No one can even confirm he's had any of that equipment here, and he never cleared it with me first to use it here. The rest was warble garble drugs bullshit. They tell me he showed up fidgety, sweaty and nervous, talking all sorts of irrational things.

Why people mess with hardcore drugs, I'll never understand. It's never a good idea, and being in business, I've seen all sorts of people lose everything over coke/meth/heroin.

Lyrical_sl said:

Youngblood showed up at the office today, acting crazy. If it happens again, I'll have to get the police involved.

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And he showed up at the office again. The police have told him the next time he shows up on the property, he'll be arrested. He showed up with one pants leg on, a tank top, every pore sticking out, and crying from staying up for days. He also hadn't shaved in a month, and had dirt all over him. He showed up unannounced, looking for property he says he had (that no one else can confirm they ever saw). And he was making menacing statements to the Secretary.

He's apparently fixated on us, because he's finding what I said to be true. I overpaid him for what he did, as I do all employees. He's gone up and down the street and found that he can't get what I was paying him. I'll use him as the cautionary tale for the other guys.

Wuwei_sl said:

Although not desirable, I'd still be content as long as he harassed the company, and not his former clients.

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Oh, he's called every client he can remember to bad mouth me. He's just making up stuff, he's tried to convince them I gas Jews for fun.

This is not my first rodeo, we've called all of the big clients and let them know that he's a disgruntled ex-employee. To some of them who believed him, I've asked them if they noticed he couldn't stop moving or sweating the whole time he was spewing his lies.

Business has gotten stronger, because bids are not going out so cheap now. We are still working our way through his bids. Maybe it's because he was high as fuck, but some of these bids make no sense. One bid that comes to mind was a very complicated job that I would have charged $7-8k for. He bid it at 1.5.

We just had a "Come to Jesus Meeting" about not trying to please me so much the Estimators cheap sell the product. Today, they couldn't wait to tell me how they'd each sold 5k in service fees. But was it priced right? I'm going to monitor that a lot more closely from now on. We bid on straight time, and all of my equipment is tracked by satellite. If the Estimator bid it to go three hours, and it took six, we have a problem.

The new guy has turned out pretty well. He's worked at my competitors, so he was only working two days a week when we picked him up. We'll see how it goes.

Nysus_sl said:

Interesting thread Lyrical, thanks! Read most of it in one sitting.

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Thanks. More than anything, the thread has helped me, typing things down makes me see things differently. I know that's weird, but it does.

Wuwei_sl said:

Good call. Merits aside, in his current state he would have been a significant liability to your company.

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There was a break in at a neighboring business, and they caught Youngblood on tape stealing from them. He's facing 5-7 years in prison. Apparently, he was high enough to forget there were security cameras everywhere, and he forgot the US military has fingerprints on him.

This guy was so clean cut when I hired him. Microsoft was trying to hire him, I stole him from them. One thing I've learned about drugs, is that they change your character. He went from boring and clean cut, to hopped up methhead pretty quick.

He's fucked himself over, they have an arrest warrant out on him, and have videotape and fingerprint evidence. Enjoy getting raped by Bubba for the next 5-7 years.

Wuwei_sl said:

Jokingly OT, it seems you had rather the strong influence on him

Edit: it does however, conveniently solve the Youngblood issue for your company in the medium term. Let's get an update in 5-7 years when he is out of prison with more connections and new skillset coming back for (Young)Blood.. (bad joke..)

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The whole situation is messed up. He had a clean record, ex-military, was clean cut and highly intelligent. He got hooked on drugs and 60 days later he's going to get 5-7 years' prison time (maybe more). He was the last guy I thought would get hooked on anything. He was pretty sharp, and sold me at least a half a million in service fees in the year he worked here. I took my eight year old on a tour of what the guy did, it was my Anti Drug Seminar for her. The office complex was covered in cameras, and even she said he had to be crazy to walk around there like he was safe. She's now convinced drugs turn you into an idiot, so at least some good came out of it.

The police showed me the evidence, and Johnny Cochran couldn't save the guy. They've got hours of video surveillance on him and his fingerprints everywhere. Apparently, meth made him think he was invisible to cameras and forensics.

Cad_sl said:

Don't be surprised if he doesn't get nearly as much time as the police are saying especially if he's a first time offender with a drug problem. Drug diversion court gets these guys out on probation all the time if they go to treatment.

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I hope they throw the book at him. Not because I hate him; I considered him a friend. But he was acting so out of control towards the end, that the only way he's going to get better is to sit in a jail cell and think about things. If they get him out on the street soon again, I just feel he'll get right back into drugs.

He's not a loser, he's not "that guy." But towards the end, he came to the office making threatening statements to my Secretary. Not cool, you shouldn't be alone with a woman, and make her feel nervous about being safe.