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Let’s talk about one of the surest paths to making your business successful fast. I’m talking about hiring. Many people delay hiring. They struggle with it and don’t want to do it. One of the benchmarks for determining how successful your business will be relates to when you start hiring. The sooner you hire, the greater your chance for long-term success.
How do you hire? I’m going to go through the process of things I did and some of my struggles. When you hire someone, you have to have a plan for them. You’ve to craft a program for them. The program includes training. This is why hiring early is so important. It will be easier to spend the necessary time in a young business, because otherwise you will lose ground in your business while you spend the time to train someone and manage them.
Even if you hire someone with a lot of experience, they don’t have experience working for you. Your personality and temperament as their boss matters. All that has to come into play and gel.
I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about. When I hired my first assistant it was a big adjustment for me. I was accustomed to just getting up and doing what I wanted to do. I had to prepare her work. I struggled with that at first.
Then with my next assistant, Amy, it was much easier because I knew what I wanted her to do. I gave her weekly assignments and I got an update when it was done. She had a lot of freedom.
I don’t really micromanage. Who can deal with that? If you’re a micromanager, you’re going to have to find someone who can deal with that. I know I used to buckle under that myself and would rebel. Then I would start looking for another job.
The hiring process is just that. It’s a process. I was talking to a client yesterday and I told them they needed to hire someone. I explained, there will be mistakes when you hire people. Bad things will happen. Do not even worry about that because the good that will come from this process is so much better.
I try and keep it real. You can hire someone and their resume looks awesome. They could be killing it on paper and then you hire them and they’re a yard bird and nothing but trouble. It happens. You can’t let that discourage you from hiring.
If you have a job and you want to start a business, you want to hire an employee as soon as possible. That means you will spend all the money the business makes in the beginning on that employee. That means there will be no money for you, but you own the asset. You’ve got to really wrap your head around that.
Hiring is a big, big thing because it is scary. You have to pay payroll taxes and file payroll forms. You’re responsible for people. There is a lot to it, but it’s worth it because of the things the employees will bring to your business.
The best time to hire people is before you need them. When you need them, you have that crush and too much to do already. If you wait too late to hire, you’re being pulled in too many directions and it is harder to train and manage them.
I know it seems too expensive for you to go ahead and hire somebody when you could do the work yourself. Let me tell you the trap you are entering into if you don’t hire when you should. It’s a nasty trap. It’s the me, me, me trap. You think no one can do it as well as you can.
The second part of that trap is when you personally serve your customers and they expect you to always serve them. Then they will balk when you try to introduce them to someone else.
If you start your mobile detail or your window washing business now, you need to go out and get yourself a salesperson from day 1. You will make way more than if you do everything yourself. This is why. When I hired three moderators for the Facebook Group, it freed up five or six hours a day. That adds up to 30 hours a week and 120 hours a month.
I took that energy and put it into coaching and mentoring. That was a 1000% return. That’s why employees are worth it. They can help you scale your business so fast.
If you have a job and maybe $5K in the bank and 15K you can use on a credit card, I would tell you to spend the first 90 days doing everything yourself. Then when you have enough information you bring someone else on because you now know what’s going on and they can’t play you. Your job is ownership. Your job is management. Your job is vision. Your job is sales, if need be.
It is better to make your hiring mistakes when your company is small. Then you can’t hurt yourself that much. But, if you wait until you’re larger and busy as shit, that’s when the fuckery is going to creep into your business because you’re so busy.
I know everyone is enamored with VAs. I’ve had VAs. I’ve had some good ones. I don’t like it. I’d rather have someone I can reach out and talk to. It doesn’t necessarily have to be here. There’s a VA and there’s working remotely.
For you internet folks, my thoughts to you would be to get someone local at first so you can go through this training stuff. Seriously, you can make more money faster. All of this is contrarian to all the stuff you’re hearing.
You can use the power of a contract to protect your ass, even for a P/T employee. If you give them a contract that spells everything out and follow all of the terms, you’re good. Now, the contract also puts some handcuffs on you. There are certain things you have to do. You should write a fair and simple contract. You don’t need an attorney for this. As long as they sign it and you sign it and record it, you’re good.
Definitely put hiring on your list. This is one of the things that kills eBay people and FBA folks. You don’t have to have a team of 50 people. You can run an eight-figure business with a team of five people to maybe twenty.
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