NorthCivil
Civil/Environmental
Any engineers here with experience scaling from a sole practitioner to an office with employees?
I am currently a one man show, and the money is pretty good. The phone is ringing quite a bit, ive had thoughts of hiring a few young guns and scaling things. But at what point does a company become more lucrative than sole practice?
Right now I have very low expenses, in fact a lot of tax breaks from writing off my home office, utilities, car, etc. I can pound out the work and make a great rate, with good margins and good profit. I charge market rates, but with low costs and expenses, it's really lucrative.
If I scale up, I will need an office, likely a part time admin, a couple engineers who I will have to train, oversee, and keep well paid, with a good chance they will move on after ive invested in them. I might have to be less picky about the work i take, in order to feed the machine. The efficiency, quality of work and quality of service will likely drop, at least a little bit.
I recall a company i worked for in my younger years, with a staff of around 12, the owner told me he made no more money running the company than he did when he was practicing solo.
Any input would be appreciated. How much bigger than 1 do you have to grow to make it worth your time?
I am currently a one man show, and the money is pretty good. The phone is ringing quite a bit, ive had thoughts of hiring a few young guns and scaling things. But at what point does a company become more lucrative than sole practice?
Right now I have very low expenses, in fact a lot of tax breaks from writing off my home office, utilities, car, etc. I can pound out the work and make a great rate, with good margins and good profit. I charge market rates, but with low costs and expenses, it's really lucrative.
If I scale up, I will need an office, likely a part time admin, a couple engineers who I will have to train, oversee, and keep well paid, with a good chance they will move on after ive invested in them. I might have to be less picky about the work i take, in order to feed the machine. The efficiency, quality of work and quality of service will likely drop, at least a little bit.
I recall a company i worked for in my younger years, with a staff of around 12, the owner told me he made no more money running the company than he did when he was practicing solo.
Any input would be appreciated. How much bigger than 1 do you have to grow to make it worth your time?