As a small business owner, you know every detail to keep your business running smoothly. As we hire staff, there’s not only a mindset shift but a skill set upgrade many of us must undergo.
My clients often tell me one of two things when discussing hiring support. Either they jump in and tell me about the sales executive or fractional CFO they want to hire… or they are on the opposite side of the spectrum and say they can’t afford to hire help.
For both of these types of entrepreneurs, I give the same advice. Let’s track your time. Seriously.
It seems so simple, yet no one does it, and here’s why: it’s a lot! When you track your time in 15-minute increments for two weeks, you get the data you need to decide who that next hire is. Group together tasks outside your zone of genius and hire someone else to do it.
With this data, you can assign a budget to your new hire. Things to think about before gathering the job description are:
- How will this generate revenue for your business?
- What is the learning curve? How much training time can you expect to get someone up to speed?
- Realistically think about the time it will take you to train this new employee.
- As you train a new employee, your productivity will decrease for a short time. When will you break even on the new hire?
Once we have our roadmap, we can discover who we need to hire.
Hiring a Virtual Assistant
You can hire several types of support staff in your business, and most people start with a VA or virtual assistant. A VA can provide a variety of tasks for your business, depending on the skills of the VA. To find a good VA:
- List the skills you need based on your assessment of the time outlined above coupled with your most significant business need right now.
- Write up a job description.
- Look for someone who can fill that slot and provide quality support in a timely fashion.
Finding a Technician
When hiring a technician, you’re looking for a person who is an expert and a “doer.” Consider hiring a technician for your business for several reasons.
A technician is a trained and skilled professional with expertise in a specific field or area of work. Hiring a technician can bring in someone with the knowledge and skills to handle a wide range of tasks and responsibilities related to your business.
In addition, a technician can help improve efficiency and productivity by completing tasks quickly and accurately. This can free up time and resources for you and your team to focus on more critical duties and responsibilities.
They can also help ensure that work is completed to a high standard, improving the quality of your products or services and helping boost customer satisfaction.
A technician may also have access to specialized equipment and tools necessary for specific tasks. Hiring a technician can bring in someone with the equipment and expertise to handle these tasks effectively.
Hiring a technician can sometimes be more cost-effective than completing specific tasks in-house. For example, suppose you need to repair or maintain specialized equipment. Hiring a technician with the necessary skills and experience may be more cost-effective than trying to train someone on your team.
Hiring a technician can benefit your business, including expertise, efficiency, quality, specialized equipment, and cost-effectiveness.
Onboarding a Manager for Your Small Business
As you grow, there’s simply a point where you can’t do it all. This person takes over the day-to-day and works to fix problems by learning from past mistakes. They are on the practical side of the business.
Consider hiring this essential position for your small business to build a solid foundation for your business to grow beyond you. Finding the right people for this role takes time and a complete mindset shift as you relinquish some control over the company and instill trust in people to allow them to do their jobs.
If you’re like me and got the entrepreneurial bug, you know this journey has highs and lows. During the high times (this is what makes entrepreneurship so addicting), it’s like you can do no wrong, everything is smooth, and you’re hitting sales goals. It feels so great!
Then, there are the lows. The less than anticipated revenue, staff doesn’t show up, you made a wrong decision, or you can’t get a day off, so your mental health suffers… you know those times. It feels like nothing will go right. During these times, you need someone in your corner who knows the business from all angles. And hint, this isn’t your life partner (wink).
Remember, BCC Business Consulting is here to partner with you and help you through processes that will get you to a place where you run your business, not the other way around.
Start with my Profit Jolt workbook, where you can work through eight processes to bring in more revenue and profit into your business >> https://www.chaostocalm.xyz/profitjolt
