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Congratulations on establishing a small business that is doing well. If you are already thinking about hiring new people, chances are that your company is turning down new work just because your company is operating at full capacity.
It is time to find you some employees but proceed with caution as the search field is riddled with phony resumes and mismatched hires. Hiring new employees is a long term commitment and a wrong decision in this regard can be detrimental to your company, the staff morale and your business’ base line as well. This seemingly simple decision must be made keeping in view your company’s long-term growth plan and your ambitions as an employer.
Also honestly review your business to figure out if it can afford new employees and if yes, how many.
Vision for The business
What is your ultimate goal with regards to the future of your business? Do you want it to eventually grow into a larger business (do you see an IPO in your future?) or do you want it to remain a small sole-proprietorship?
Find out ways you can out source some of the work to independent contractors. Another option is to team up with other businesses that complement the services provided by yours. That is if you are an advertising consultant, your firm could partner up with a graphic designer or a printer to provide full range of services to the customers, without putting too much pressure on you.
Another option for getting the work done with hiring is known as Virtual Assistants. They help with administrative tasks, basic sales and some marketing tasks as well and they usually work from home. You can also settle on temporary or part-time workers. Hence, there are many options and endless combinations of needs to help you fulfill your organizations staffing needs; it all depends on your idea of the ultimate business set up.
Industry blogs and websites also have job boards with resumes of people looking for relevant jobs. Scour these to find your ideal employees.
The Type of Help You Need
Before you bring a new employee on-board, there are few things that need to be decided on. First of all, how strenuous is your business workload? And secondly, what are the areas of business that mandate the extra help? Also figure out if it is a particular type of job you need help with or just the overall management of things? What important projects are lined up for the next 6 months or year?
People Management Skills
Do you have any?
This is an important question and you will need to answer it honestly. Will you be good at making hiring decisions? Can you pair a person up nicely with a job? Can you look past the resume and see the person for their capabilities and not the number of degrees they have? All important questions!
Don’t overlook this important consideration. If you’ve managed employees in another occupation, how successful were you at making good hiring decisions? How many bad ones have you made?
Affording New Employees
The rules, regulations and laws pertaining to employment are pretty strict and some of them even carry forward to part time and temporary employment. Before going about hiring people, create a realistic estimate of what it will cost your business to do so. These include: Salaries and wages, unemployment tax, worker’s compensation insurance, Medicare, Social Security taxes, recruitment and training costs, any benefits the employees have been promised, payroll costs, equipment costs for setting them up with their own desks, computers etc. Also include additional software licenses and phone data plans and any insurance that may be required. Factor in the additional costs of an employee and projected increase in revenue for each employee.
There is a lot to be done, but you don’t have to go at it alone. Organizations such as SCORE, Small Business Development Centre and Women’s Business Centre can provide you with the tools and resources to navigate through the hiring process with relative ease.
Some Words of Entrepreneurial Wisdom
The best way to find trustworthy employees is through referral. When existing employees pass on someone, they have a lot at stake since they don’t want their own reputation tarnished by referring someone incompetent. So always pay heed to anyone suggested by current employees. Friends, advisory and industry colleagues can also point you to a potential gem of an employee.
Also look for employees who are in the same mindset as yours, who enjoy innovation and take lead on projects. Such candidates usually come from smaller organizations and are always on the lookout for something more exciting. Contrarily, employees with big-business credentials are used to behaving in a certain manner, staying out of trouble and following lots of rules. Their entrepreneurial spirit has been silenced!