Hey folks, right, today I want to talk to you about a huge milestone in any business journey, and that is hiring your first employee.
Now, if you have a business and you’re at that tipping point where you’re doing everything yourself and wondering, is it time to bring somebody on? Then this is the video for you. And I’m going to break it down for you in terms of when to do it, how to do it, and then probably the most important bit, what not to do.
So, how do you know it’s the right time?
Well, here’s the truth, you should hire when you are starting to turn down opportunities or growth because you physically can’t keep up. That’s going to be the red flag because then you’re stuck working in the business when what you need to do is be working on the business.
If I go back to the early days of Crafter’s Companion, I used to rope in my roommates at university, family and friends and they would come and help me with the business whenever I needed it. I was so grateful for their support and it worked really well for a while, but I quickly hit a point where underneath it all, I was the one person doing all of the designing, the packaging, the emails, the shipping, and it was really unsustainable.
Now, I knew that I had to make that leap before I completely burned out or before I missed the big chances to really grow the business.
So ask yourself this, is your time being spent on the £10 pound tasks when you should be focusing on the £100 ones? If your answer is yes, then keep listening.
Now my next question is what role should you hire first, right? The simple answer is to start with your biggest bottleneck. If admin is sucking up your day, you could hire an assistant or try one of these virtual assistants if that’s what your budget allows.
If your orders are backing up, then it’s time to bring on some pack and help. The first hire doesn’t need to be full-time or a fancy job. They just need to free you up so that you can focus on the stuff that only you can do.
Now, in my case, it was my friend Mira’s mam, Kamala. She was at a bit of a loose end, she wasn’t working and she was a stay-at-home mum. She didn’t have a lot to do during the day, and she was just getting a little bit bored.
So Mira reached out. She knew how busy I was and she said, Sara, do you think my mam might be of any use to give you a bit of a hand? And honestly, I practically bit her arm off for the offer.
Kamala took over all of the calls and she took over all of the finances pretty quickly. In all honesty, she was just a complete godsend. Having someone that I could rely on to support me with the day-to-day running of the business helped me to focus more on the opportunities for growth, which were the things that were so important in those early years.
Let’s talk now about the how and how to hire smart. Because hiring the wrong person can actually set you back more than not hiring at all.
I was fortunate enough to already know Kamala and know that she was a hard worker and was exactly what I needed but people can’t always be that fortunate.
So, if you are looking for someone, make sure you write a really clear job description. Be very specific about what tasks that they’re going to be doing and describe the sort of person that you’re looking for in terms of their behaviours.
Now, if you’re really unsure about what you’re actually looking for and you don’t want to make the full commitment of hiring somebody full-time, why not try a freelancer or somebody part-time at first just to be able to test the waters? That worked really well for me in the early days.
And then you must hire for attitude and train for skill. So unless you’re looking for a really specific skill set or experience to help you, then it’s a really good opportunity to take on somebody more junior and really hone their skills.
Honestly, I would rather have somebody who is eager, reliable, and aligned with my values than somebody who’s got 10 years of experience but has the totally wrong attitude. Then I want you to make sure you have a basic onboarding plan when they start. It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy, just make sure you give them any information they might need.
This could be a checklist, for example. Spend some time on training them, showing them exactly what you’d like them to do. It’s so important because you want to set up this new person for success.
Now, the next thing I want you to consider when you’re hiring somebody is something that nobody tells you and that is hiring your first employee isn’t just about process, it’s about mindset.
Up to now, you’ve been doing it all and you know how it should be done and letting go of that control can be as scary as anything. But when you let go of the little things, then you make room for the big things and that’s where your growth comes from. You will never grow if you try and do it all yourself and your business, it deserves to grow so we really need to focus on what we need to change in ourselves to get this right.
So when should you hire your first employee? When staying solo is holding your business back.
How do you do it? Start small, be clear and hire for attitude.
Right, thank you for watching this week’s Six Minute Entrepreneur. If you are in that place where you’re thinking of making your first hire, hopefully you found this really useful. And if you’re watching because you’re going through the process now, it would be brilliant if you could maybe share your experiences with the rest of our community in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe. What is it the kids say? Give it a thumbs up and then we’ll see you for the next one.