Small businesses can grow faster than a teenager with an unlimited supply of Cheetos and Pop-Tarts. Honestly.

With that growth, though, comes the need to hire. Is that where you find yourself right now? Here’s what you need to know…

*Jokingly checks to make sure HR isn’t around…*

In all honesty, you’re about to hear my unfiltered thoughts on hiring, outsourcing, and team building as a small business owner.

In this post, I’m gonna take you behind the scenes and talk about all the dos and don’ts of hiring for your small business.

I’ll clue you in on some of the systems and processes that I’ve put in place over the last seven years — systems that I have found so much relief in if I do say so myself!

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DO have a clear job description

Ready to get help? The first thing you need is a super duper-clear job description.

When you’re the visionary, the CEO, you’re probably great at casting this vision and communicating the big ideas. But you’re probably not as good about the little details — not because you’re not detail-oriented, but because you like to move fast. 

When you’re moving down that road at a high clip, you’re prone to miss some things, like the ins and outs of a job role. 

That’s absolutely why I love Michael Hyatt’s Vision Caster template for executive assistants.

What this tool does is force me to slow down and think through the new role. 

 

What are my goals with this? 

How does this person know when it’s finished? 

How does this person know when they need help? 

Have I communicated where this fits in the whole business to them? 

 

That stuff is so important!

And this can be applied to any role, whether that’s a VA or marketing manager. 

Writing the actual job description

When it comes to writing the job description itself, I like to go to LinkedIn for inspo. I play around and hodgepodge together my own job description based on other ones out there.

When you do it this way, you have good comps for the going rate of that position you’re trying to fill. That’s why having a collected pool of job descriptions that are proven by somebody in the industry can be a helpful place to start. Especially if you’re new to all of this hiring stuff!

But if you’re looking for something that’s a little less arts and crafts, The Paradigm Shop has great job descriptions to blitz that you could just purchase and download. (Use TeamAW at checkout to save 15%!).

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DON’T hand off a mess

I know you want to just get the things off of your plate, but it’s going to just turn into an even bigger mess. You need to know the deliverables you’re expecting from a new hire so you can help guide them. 

This means you need to take some time to understand the things that you’re hiring for. And it also means you need a process for it too!

Yep, I’m talking SOPs (standard operating procedures). Because when you have that outlined, it’s much easier to hand off the work and get the deliverables. 

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DO hire before you’re ready

Uh-huh, you read that right! 

I used to think that hiring was for the big girls that were further along. But that thinking had a not-so-wonderful impact on how I hired in the future. That mindset wasn’t doing a lot to help me save time!

I went through contractor after contractor struggling to keep my biz afloat. I wouldn’t recommend that. 

BUT contractors can be a great way to get a feel for things. It’s kind of like dating before marriage. I will say, it was helpful for me to initially start with a short-term project and get a vibe check. 

And as we both grew more comfortable with each other, we assess whether or not things should progress to a retainer, part-time, and then eventually, full-time!

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DON’T wait to give out reviews

Your employees and contractors want to know if they’re hitting their marks, if they’re missing their marks, and what the marks even are.

When people know what’s expected of them, and how they’re doing, then they start to develop a rhythm and begin to work better. Giving out this information really helps people do their best work!

Yes, this means you probably need to have some sort of schedule of quarterly and annual reviews. Which may sound intimidating on your end, but if you can give people three-ish KPIs, it can help them make sure they stay on track. Feedback is so helpful!

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DO think about the money

Hiring is helpful for task management, but it can also either save you money or be a cash drain.

Will this role help you move the needle forward in your biz? I’ve learned that knowing your hourly rate, even as a CEO, can help you figure that out. 

What value every hour is your time worth to your business as the boss? You need to look at every hire or outsourcing opportunity as an opportunity to make the most of those dollars and cents. 

But be mindful that hiring will cost you some money. 

For years, I thought my biz could run at about a 60 to 40% profit margin. While I’m a mostly digital business with little overhead cost (on products anyways), I found that the more we grew, the more money I spent. 

Labor is expensive. But in the end…time IS money, and hiring can help you maximize that. 

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DON’T forget about team culture

Don’t think that just because you are a remote team, you don’t have a team culture. You do. 

Another big realization to me, especially this last year since we hired a lot…as the CEO, you’re the leader. I know that’s kind of a weird concept to accept, but it’s true. You’re the boss of the team. 

You have a culture, and as the boss, you’re creating and facilitating it. In Slack, in Voxer, whatever you’re using to communicate to employees. It all plays a role. 

One thing I’ve challenged myself to get better at is to interject little moments of fun. 

For example, we started a Slack thread that’s called “Things I bought and Liked,” where everybody’s influencing everybody else. It’s actually pretty neat!

This can be something else for you, but basically, you want to look for some creative, out-of-the-box ways to manage culture within your remote team — especially as you watch your team grow. 

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DO learn how to maximize your time

Outsourcing is critical to scaling and it can take a lot of the weight off your shoulders and let you stay in your zone of genius. Especially when it comes to giving you MORE time back.

If you wanna learn a little bit more about how I make decisions as the visionary and CEO of my creative small business, be sure to grab my free guide below!

This will show you five things you can outsource in your biz, no matter what kind of biz you have. And when you pair it with the tips you learned today? Tres magnifique!