It's harder than pulling teeth. The shops openiing in april and I've had an abundance of people sending me CV's who installed a radio in their friends cars etc. But not one single reasonably qualified installer. What gives?... when I got into the industry 7-8 years ago there was always people coming by the shop I was working at dropping off resumes and such. And now, even with quite a few shops going under and vanishing there seems to be no installers....if I didn't shave my head regularly I would have pulled all my hair out allready. I'll be opening in the Montreal area, so if anyone knows any good places to look or put out adds, any help would be awesome.

 

This industry is forever changing. Many of us are off to the much more lurative HOME installations. You can earn 2-3 times more money with that job, and it's easier! They are also seeing our industry slowing, whereas the home side is picking up, even in this economy.
You may have to import someone from outside of your city. There's a guy from Mexico who really wants to work up here. I've seen his resume. I was impressed.
Good luck on your search.

 

I'm rying at all costs to avoid stealing another shops installer since it's generally bad practice, but sadly it's looking like what it's gonna have to come down to. I can pay up $20/h for a good installer but still no bites. In the montreal area going rate for a good installer is $15/h more if they are really good and do custom work

 

Holy Crap! No wonder you can't find one. My top guy took home $42,000.00 last year. My least experienced guy took home $25,000.00
In B.C. most shops pay a percentage of the job instead of hourly because it works better for everyone. It's a great encouragement to get and keep good employee's.
I strongly recommend sub-contracting the work out to experienced people for the shops maximum benefit. When I charge a customer $1000 worth of labour that I don't need to supervise, I'm more than willing to give up to half of it away.

 

in Montreal it's alot more seasonal than BC and pay scale is lower since the total sales is lower. Around here, hourly rate is the way it goes for more stable income. also $20/h is $41k/year for a 4 hour week, and as you know.. in the summer there is ALWAYS overtime.

Last year at $18.25/h I made over $60k gross and with sidelining doing home installs and handy-man work in the winter I did another $15k or so on top of that.

$15/h is respectable salary so a decent installer. I'm ot talking about a fabrication/custom guy either. Just someone that can change parts and so remote starters

 

That's all good and fine, but as an owner, you need to think differently. If you want a qualified installer to make you money and to work on your shops reputation, then you will need a few more reasons for someone to want to work for you rather than someone else down the street for the same amount of money. The difference between gross and net is usually about $20,000. Maybe a prospective installer would like to deal with his own taxes for that much.

 

the shop being on a reserve is tax free to begin with. I'm just saying that in the montreal area, nobody offers pay based on installs. Bonuses can and go get given, but pay is always based on hourly rate. I completely understand about building the reputation of the shop and such but on that same note, it's very easy for an installer to start taking shortcuts and speeding through jobs to add up his billed hours. Which in turn can work easily against a shop in terms of long term reputation.

 

I think I need to relocate.
I make **** $12.86 + 10%
I deserve more.