Content hub
Growing a Trade Business Beyond Your Own Labour
A guide to hiring employees, managing subcontractors, setting spending limits, and stepping off the tools deliberately.
Hiring, subcontracting, spending control and getting off the tools deliberately.
Start here
Growth breaks businesses that had no systems to begin with. A second pair of hands doubles the paperwork, the purchasing, the quality risk and the pressure on cash before it doubles the income.
This hub covers hiring timing and affordability, employee versus subcontractor, apprentices, administrators, onboarding, quality control, purchasing authority, expense cards, limits, vans, tools, timesheets, payroll, cover, delegation and moving off the tools.
What this hub covers
Topic clusters
Written in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Before you hire
Affordability and structure.
Onboarding and standards
Quality does not travel by osmosis.
Spending and delegation
Letting go without losing control.
Markus on this hub
What matters most here
The three things that change the numbers fastest in this part of the business.
Employee or subcontractor is not your choice alone
Status is decided by how the work actually happens: control, substitution, equipment, financial risk and mutuality of obligation. Calling someone a subcontractor while directing their hours, supplying their tools and refusing substitution invites a costly reclassification.
If you need someone on your jobs, on your schedule, using your van, plan for employment and price the work accordingly.
Cost an employee properly before you hire
The wage is roughly two thirds of the cost. Employer's National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday pay, employer's liability insurance, tools, PPE, training, phone and unproductive time all sit on top.
Then be honest about chargeable hours: a new employee rarely bills more than 25 to 28 hours a week in the first months. Work out the extra turnover you need before the first payslip, not after it.
Get off the tools deliberately, one task at a time
Trying to run the business in the evenings is how good trades burn out. Move one task at a time — quoting, or purchasing, or scheduling — into a fixed slot in the working week and protect it.
Write the process down as you hand it over. A one-page instruction is the difference between delegating and repeatedly rescuing.
Tools
Calculators for this area
- calculatorEmployee Affordability CalculatorEstimate the full first-year cost of a hire and the revenue needed to cover it.
- finderEmployee Purchase-Card FinderWork out whether you need debit expense cards, prepaid cards, reimbursement or credit.
- assessmentTrades Business Health CheckAssess pricing, cash, operations, customers and team control in one pass.
Templates
Paperwork for this area
- TXTEmployee Expense PolicyThe written rules that let people buy what they need without you approving every fitting — and without losing a receipt a week.
- CSVSubcontractor Onboarding ChecklistEverything to have on file before a subcontractor sets foot on your job.
- CSV30-Day Trades Business ResetThirty short tasks, one a day, that together fix the pricing, payment and paperwork problems most trade businesses carry.
Straight answers
Common questions
- How much extra turnover does one employee need?
- As a rule of thumb, plan for the total employment cost — wage plus roughly 25 to 30% — divided by your realistic gross margin. For most trade businesses that means a five-figure uplift in annual turnover per hire.
- Can I pay a labourer cash day-to-day?
- You still have to record it, report it correctly and check status and right-to-work. Undocumented cash payments create tax, insurance and liability exposure that far outweighs the convenience.
- When is the right time to hire?
- When you are consistently turning down profitable work, your forecast shows three months of cover for the extra cost, and you have written down the tasks the new person will actually do.