Secretary

Wesley Teston said:
Commission? Does he do your sales also or do you give him some type of weekly goal to turnout? What type salary should I start out at? Thanks for the help Brian.
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Nothing against Brian. He may have a great structure where it makes sense to pay his Office Manager commission. But in my structure I would never pay my Office Manager commission. I guess it all depends on what the roll of the Office Manager is in your company. I think the first step is to define the roll before you can decide the correct payment.

My Office Manager does the following:
· Answering the phones and transfer calls to correct department
· Ordering office stationery supplies
· Review and Respond to correspondence
· Filing
· Check the mail
· Send Invoices
· Accounts payable / Receivable Management
· Make collection calls/emails on past due accounts
· Call or setup collections with attorney
· Customer support and follow up
· Vendor support
· Deals with accountant to keep books in order
· Works with operations manager
· Works with sales team / track commissions
· Works with owners on specific tasks.
· Keep office organized and clean
· Some marketing duties
· Track and pay bills for:

  • Rent
  • Phone
  • Internet
  • Vehicle
  • Etc…
REPORTS
-Weekly Cash Balance Report
-Weekly Forecast Report = Out Vs In
-A/P Reports Payroll – Wednesday/Thursday


I already pay my sales department residually for commission on sales. So I would never allow my Office Manager to make commission. In all honesty, my Office Manager is just a Secretary with a nicer name. Now if you have your Office Manager also doing Operations and Scheduling etc. I would give them a higher salary but still keep them away from commission. Those small % of jobs really hurt a company to lose.

Here is what the average Secretary in USA makes: http://www1.salary.com/Secretary-I-salary.html

My Office Manager position starts at $650 per week which comes out to: $33,800 per year. If your position is doing more Operations heavy then I would consider paying more but still staying away from salary. Here is average "Office Manager" position salary: http://www1.salary.com/Office-Manager-Salary.html

However, for those rates, I would much rather hire 2 different people have 1 Operations Manager and 1 Office Manager. I have been there and done that trying to have 1 Office Manager handle 2 positions and paying her 2 times the money. In the long run, it is inefficient and will just burn out the employee. It is better to hire 2 people and let each person focus on their duties.

Again, everyone has a different business model. So nothing against anyone's post. Just giving you my perspective. Hope it helped.
 
Perfect Ty! Thanks for the great feed back and help. I think this is going to be awesome for me moving forward and I want to be fair.

Brian, it's worth a whole lot to me. That's why I'm asking you guys because I would over pay starting out. Thanks again Ty and Brien.
 
I hired my wife as office manager/secretary whatever you want to call your position. One of the biggest advantages for me is it separates me from the customers. She takes all calls and does 85% of the residential quotes and virtually all the scheduling. Now our customers are hiring Gulf Coast Pressure Washing rather than hiring Mark Sexton. In my opinion this is giving my company more value because they are now hiring the company and not just hiring me.
 
Mark 8262 said:
In my opinion this is giving my company more value because they are now hiring the company and not just hiring me.
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Well said Mark. At the end of the day. As sad as this may seem. More people want to hire larger companies rather than owner operators. They feel more security and stability from the business.

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AZ PowerWash Pros said:
Well said Mark. At the end of the day. As sad as this may seem. More people want to hire larger companies rather than owner operators. They feel more security and stability from the business.

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Hah I dont know Ty..... Customers LOVE my wife and give me the stink eye when i show up instead of her..... jk the bigger the business is usually the more they feel trust.
 
Good post Ty. I agree to get 2 people would be better in most circumstances. Yes you do need to define the roll before payment. I still need to do the bills. He also helped with employees and helped with fixing machines so it does matter what they do. I am also looking to figure out new plans for 2015.
 
Rsuds said:
Good post Ty. I agree to get 2 people would be better in most circumstances. Yes you do need to define the roll before payment. I still need to do the bills. He also helped with employees and helped with fixing machines so it does matter what they do. I am also looking to figure out new plans for 2015.
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Thanks Brian. Sounds like you have a strong business mind! I know you probably have a great model going for you.
 
I am trying. Asking help from older retired successful people helps. Everyone should do it. It is hard for me to keep giving up control of things and let management go.
 
AZ PowerWash Pros said:
Pros:
- You get more time to sell
- Your clients are always taken care of whether you are on a job or not
- Makes you look like a larger organization
- Phone never goes to VM
- Women like dealing with women
- Spend more time focusing on growing and operations of your business

Cons:
- More employees to manage
- Training takes time
- More expenses

I think the Pros out weigh the cons... DO IT!! Every time I hire someone my company grows and benefits from the hire. And then I find myself thinking, why didn't I do that a long time ago??
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This. Overall I see way more pros than cons with this as well
 
Looks like I am losing my office manager and need to hire a new one. Put a add in monster and got over 20 responses in 3 days. Also looks like we are loosing my residential estimator, this will be harder to replace but looking forward to moving on. Exciting times.
 
If you have proper quoting guidelines in place, it should be relatively easy to replace the estimator. Just make sure they're a recent sales person.
 
Rsuds said:
Looks like I am losing my office manager and need to hire a new one. Put a add in monster and got over 20 responses in 3 days. Also looks like we are loosing my residential estimator, this will be harder to replace but looking forward to moving on. Exciting times.
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I just replaced my office manager and we got one that was even better! In fact, I have had 3 office managers since I started and every time I thought I couldn't get any one better. And every time they have gotten better!!! I am just lucky...
 
My office manager makes about $40k a year, and does anything that my wife and I don't want to do. She is invaluable, but don't tell her I said that.
 
AZ PowerWash Pros said:
I just replaced my office manager and we got one that was even better! In fact, I have had 3 office managers since I started and every time I thought I couldn't get any one better. And every time they have gotten better!!! I am just lucky...
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You are not lucky. You probably have good systems in place. It is a great job and they should work hard and then make more money for the company and then more for themselves. I want to say it is that simple but.
Exciting times.
 
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