Staffing....thin or not?

[jagman]

What is a good rule of thumb to determine when you need more help? We are averaging 263K gross sales per month.We have three counterpeople(not including myself) and one warehouse person and our drivers are from a outside company.

[jgroth]

The rule of thumb I have heard thrown around over the years is 50K in sales per counterman. How you factor in and the driver depend on your individual situation.

[partsguy]

There are other variables that go into the equation:

1. Are you strong in wholesale?
2. What product lines do you carry?
3. Are you a "working manager", i.e. do you work the counter a portion of the time?

I have worked for both domestic and import franchises, and found that productivity per
counterperson was significantly less on the domestic side, due to all the additional "hoops" they have to go through. Honda recommended $35k in gross sales per employee, and I would think the domestics would be somewhat less.

General perception of your #'s: I would say that you are probably working the folks pretty hard, and vacations and sick days are pretty tough on the staff.

Hope this helps!