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にほんブログ村
Hello. I’m Yasui, a one-person company president running a business focused on high-pressure gas equipment inspections.
Since my old printer had been causing frequent print errors, I decided to buy a new one.
The old one was a business inkjet printer that cost around 30,000 yen, and I’d used it for about four years. Honestly, I’d hoped it would last me about ten years.
However, the time and effort required just to get something printed had become ridiculous, so I bit the bullet and replaced it.
The new printer has a much faster printing speed, so it’s been pretty comfortable to use.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about “operating rate” (and don’t say, “Only now?” haha), and a certain question has come to mind.
People often say that, because of the labor shortage, we should put all our effort into hiring. But is that really the best approach? I feel that if you get the order wrong, it could lead to big problems.
If we assume 120 days off per year, that leaves 245 working days. On average, that’s about 20 working days per month.
When we get busy, we lose days off and end up working on holidays, which increases sales and profits.
In our industry, however, the winter season is a slow period, so sales naturally drop and we end up consuming the profits we’d built up during the busy season.
For businesses with a clear cycle between busy and slow periods, where sales dip below the break-even point during the slow season, it makes more sense to think about sales and profits on an annual basis.
Since we do inspection work, we usually have recurring jobs from previous years, so we can estimate some figures. From there, we can figure out how much we can afford in labor costs.
I think it’s rare for a new hire—whether mid-career or fresh out of school—to be able to cover their own costs right from the start.
At first, they are people who live off the company’s profits.
For a small company, having too many people like that can quickly become a struggle.
So, it’s important not to steer the company in a direction where such hires keep increasing.
The company’s survival comes first—only then can employees’ livelihoods be sustained. That’s something we must not forget.
Training people requires a significant investment of money, time, and effort, as well as the resolve to take responsibility for someone’s livelihood.
But before hiring anyone, you need to consider whether you already have a business structure capable of generating profits.
Do you have the financial stability to endure until they become productive?
What are your prospects for the next five or ten years?
There’s a lot to think about.
If your operating rate suggests you’re outsourcing a substantial amount of work throughout the year, then hiring an employee might be feasible.
Looking at the volume of outsourced labor is a very simple way to gauge this.
If the current staff can handle things as they are, then it means you don’t have enough work to justify additional hires.
We’re not a manufacturing business, but having excessive production capacity compared to the amount of work requested is a risky situation.
I believe hiring decisions should be made with supply-demand balance in mind.
Looking around, I get the feeling that overall work volume is slowly decreasing.
This means that having a proactive attitude toward sales and going out to get work is becoming increasingly important.
It may also be necessary to branch out into new business areas.
They say “maintaining the status quo is like stagnation.”
I think it’s safe to say that continuous change is the most important thing of all.
Thank you very much for reading this far!
See you next time!
