Self employed cleaners

[Positivelysober]

I'm a self employed cleaner. I'm now fully booked and can't take on anymore clients. I've had three people come to me with enquiries from word of mouth recommendations - wich is great!
I obviously have to hire someone if I am to do this, but if I'm honest, I'm nervous, because if for example I have four customers and I allocate them a separate two, if they're off sick or can't work for whatever reason, I can't go and do their two customers as can't be in two places at once. Equally, if I had someone work with me to have the time and do more together in one day, again what if they're off? I wouldn't be able to cover the whole amount in one day. I know this sort of thing happens and I do want to move things forward but I don't want any extra stress.

Not sure what to do, do any advice would be welcome

Edit - three more enquiries in last ten days

This was the dilemma I had too. I figured the only way I could make it work was that I hire two staff to clean and I would be “surplus” and step in if one was off sick. Ultimately I decided it wasn’t what I wanted and so just continued working alone and turned work away.

This is what I'm worried about. I do like working alone😂

I just work alone and turn down the offers. I can’t be doing with the extra stress!

Think I will be doing the same

It's a huge undertaking having staff. You can go down the self employed route where you subcontract to someone else, but they are free to pick and choose when they work which may not help you. Taking on an employee involves insurance, sick pay, maternity/paternity pay, leave for dependants, holiday pay, employment contract to write and so many other things. Even the most reliable can be a pain in the backside. I have one permanent member of staff and she's had five days off in the last year because of her dog, I kid you not. Naturally she isn't paid for it, but it puts so much pressure on me because I then have to work her hours. She's on a zero hours contract now so it doesn't matter as much anymore. Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone that far, but I do often need an extra pair of hands and I don't want to now start scaling back.

Yeah those are all the things I've been worrying about. Hmm, alot to think about