Hi Trick,
I'm not sure what your economy is like, the size of your service area, or how many competitors you have, so bear with me if some of what I say doesn't apply to you. I will bet you probably know all of what I'm about to say anyways. I've been in business for 15 years (and I'm still learning). I have 3 full-time employees.
I'd say first and foremost, you need to pace yourself. I'd say that scheduling is probably the most difficult thing I have to deal with. We work 8 hours a day, nothing more (except emergencies). Because there's a shortage of EC's in my area, for the past few years I've had to learn to pace myself so we could keep up with the demand, yet not get to a point where we're running ragged trying to keep everyone happy. You can't do it all.
I'm unclear as to why you are not booking work for the following weeks. We have enough work booked for a couple of months, so there's no worry if there will be work for us next week - and other than a listing in the Yellow Pages, I don't advertise. When people call I warn them that we won't be able to take on their project for at least 8 to 10 weeks, and even then I won't commit to a timeframe. Most people are understanding - although we also lose some too - if they can get another EC to fit them in sooner, great. You do what you can, but you will never be able to please everyone.
Another thing, just because a customer calls first doesn't mean that they are first in the queue. I prioritize - what the customers think is the biggest priority on their list may be the lowest priority on my list.
Will hiring another employee end up cutting into your profit margin and increase your stress? One of my employees recently quit for greener pastures, and I found my stress level dropped considerably mainly because I didn't have so many jobs on the go at the same time.
The last employee I hired was given fair warning that there is always the possibility there could be the odd short-term layoff, most likely because of a scheduling problem. So far that hasn't happened. But when you work for a small company, layoffs are a part of life.
Delegate. Why is it harder to send an employee to do smaller jobs & service work? I don't think you're giving them enough credit. If your employees are qualified, they should be able to handle just about any job you throw at them. My employees know that if there's something they can't handle, I'm only a phone call away.
You won't make as much money sitting in the office. Why not hire someone at a relatively low wage to do this while it frees you up to make money in the field?
The bottom line is, look after #1 first. Pace yourself - there's no point in making yourself sick because you're working 80 hours a week and still can't keep up. Sooner or later it will catch up with you - it did for me and it almost cost me my life. Now I look at my company & my customers with a different perspective. If a customer gets impatient because we're not maintaining their scheule, so be it. We can only do so much and we are doing our best - what doesn't get done today will still be there tomorrow. There's no point in working your ass off and getting all stressed out only to end up with major health problems.
