Solo Scrapping Vs. With a Helper

In my own case, partnerships rarely work out. Had one for a very short time and been solo since. Just my opinion.

I can only speak as a solo scrapper. I may bring in folks sometimes for a special project, or something is to much for just me. We agree on a price an thats that. Or I pay in beer..whatever, depends on the job an help. lol.

Now having said that..I've trained myself to do this solo. another pair of hands usually gets in my way. I do a lot of ewaste, so really don't need a hand to often with heavy stuff. I try not to take projects on that are more then I can handle, sometimes they do being more then I thought, but I either get it done by myself or call in some help.

You being where you are(if in a city, can only go by NJ..it's a big place. :P ), it might be better to have two sets of eyes, etc. Lots of hidey places in a city, ally ways, apartment complexes, industrial areas, etc etc. For me on my sandbar? I don't really need an extra set most of the time. Most is out in the open if it's to take. If it's not at the curb, it belongs to someone.

You gotta go with what works best for you. Then you need to decide if your friend/help is a partner or an employee. To big differences. An make sure he's on board with it to avoid issues. You can define employee as you like, but at the day your the boss an don't HAVE to run ideas by the help. Or if he's a partner..then you do have to share all that with him unless you agree otherwise.

I do notice lots of folks here work alone, but I think I've seen some "teams" post before in the past.

Good luck an let us know how it works out for you.

Sirscrapalot - Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go. - Seven loud an in my opinion drunk dwarves.

when it comes to a paid assistant, its BEST not to use close friends or immediate family- like brothers etc
cos they tend to do too little & expect too much in return and if things go really sour, then u still have to see their ugly faces after work

best to use a stranger
that way he knows where he stands & wont take things too easy

i prefer to work on my own and only use an assistant when a job is def too much for me to handle alone.

I have had friends ride along and help me do a big pickup from time to time when I was more actively doing it. I was more than happy to show them the ins and outs of scrapping and how I made money, in hopes that they themselves can make money. It is a supplemental income for me anyways, so if I'm not picking up, it's not the end of the world. Usually a ride along paid for beer when we got home, or a meal ticket, or even just some knowledge. I've helped out quite a few people get started on it over time.

You'd have to be pretty big time to actually need a second person. 2 people almost never work, unless it's you and your dad, or your son/daughter/etc.

My wife has been very supportive of all of my extracurricular endeavors, as most of them have at least made me some money on the side, or paid enough to break even plus some knowledge.

People that know that I do a lot of buying/selling scrapping tend to hold on to things for me versus throwing them away. Hell my boss even gave me a digital camera last week to sell.

Just my thoughts on partnerships and working with friends:

I have a handyman business and I have worked with people and for friends in the past. I made a choice a long time ago that any job or partnership is not worth losing a friend. I will walk away rather than poison a friendship as true friends are too hard to find and keep. The equation would look something like this...

Friend > work - pay

Originally Posted by msmoorad

when it comes to a paid assistant, its BEST not to use close friends or immediate family- like brothers etc
cos they tend to do too little & expect too much in return and if things go really sour, then u still have to see their ugly faces after work

best to use a stranger
that way he knows where he stands & wont take things too easy

i prefer to work on my own and only use an assistant when a job is def too much for me to handle alone.

Never do business with family or friends.

Originally Posted by NHscrapman

When there is a limited time on gathering a LOT of material I would say a helper may be a good idea.

can he work for a % of the weeks total again?
don't need funds, just share the payout.

This was my thought exactly. Just take your helper to the yard with you and pay him right then and there.

A friend and I scrapped together for a while, he lives overseas now and was holidaying at his own house in the same town as me.
We found it worked good, our recovery $ were good because I had no vehicle and he could borrow one.
That ment we were able to get scrap I could not have gotten myself and we could break it down quicker and get onto the next job faster.
Also we could just get scrap continually and hoard it for a few days, then scrap it out.
We also taught each other handy ideas though I think I taught him more, as it is.

We did break everything down as far as possible, my idea. Normally 'we' wouldn't. We also spent a bit of unproductive time looking for scrap, simply because we could break it down faster and then had nothing to do.

For a short time I thought I got 'shortchanged' on one sale, until I found a sack of scrap Copper we had put aside and forgotten about.
We did do a LOT of scrap though, and we got paid for the steel back then too.

We found we were getting about 40% return each and 20% went to 'overheads', some of that overheads went to friends for vehicle and tool use, like we borrowed a 'sawzall' and brought blades for it and gave the unused blades to the owner for using it.
The odd $5 to get someone to "give us a hand loading" or incentive, or 'finders fee'.
I found the 9inch anglegrinder better and I completey forgot I had a compressed air chisel to use, for splitting up a old van that could not be towed off a property because stuff had been built in front of it. drats.

Because we did more scrap in the same time, and saved up our scrap till we had to move it because of storage issues, we got some nice $400 & $500 payouts. We also put it under his name and he lived overseas.
(when I did my scrap later after he left, it was under my name, so less $ under my name at the end of the year. We do not pay tax on scrap income here normally)

We did enjoy doing it, we also got firewood for heat and a few $ during this time too. It was for a set time though, it was not a 'open ended' scrap agreement. It finished when he left NZ.
I was OK with teaching him how to scrap as after he went back, he could do it there and it wouldn't affect my future scrapmetal volumes.


Yep, scrapping with someone can work, but mostly it won't. Someone always thinks because they supplied more scrap they should get more$, or knows more so should get more $, or had the tools to get more done should get more $..... Or its done in one persons property..
Also, if someone breaks something that's going to co$t $$, what's the story there?

3 years ago my cousin and i would go out on our days off and gather all kinds of scrap. He supplied the truck and we each split gas. We split the money from the scrap yard 50/50. That went on for bit over a year with no problem before his truck kept breaking down and he ended up getting rid of it.

I have learned I would rather work alone.There has only been a few times I got a helper that's when I had a lot of stuff or heavy things.To me if you are working with family or friends it turns into a bad situation with hard feelings towards each other.