04.28.2016 - By Ryan Ayres: Business Coach and Strategist
Today's show is about hiring. It's specifically two questions I
literally received last week talking to a coaching client and these
are:
How do I know when it's time to hire?
I have three candidates I really like, how do I
choose?
How do you know when it's time to hire?
Reasons that business owners get too far in and haven't hired
yet:
Lack of readiness
Lack of funds
Easy things to know when it's time to hire:
You're flat out of time and you continue to drop the ball on fairly
critical tasks.
Do you spend more time putting out fires and doing other work that
you shouldn't really be doing in the first place? Spend your time
on the most critical items that drive your business.
"I can't afford somebody."
Well, you can't afford NOT to have somebody. If you spend your time
working 18 hours a day and you drop a ball, you cannot afford not
to have somebody otherwise your business goes on a death
spiral.
Ways to get staff without breaking the bank:
Use contractors for 2-3 hours a week.
Find interns or someone that can handle very remedial things for
minimal pay.
Ask for referrals.- Referrals are really good or someone you've
already worked with before that you can just hand over something to
with minimal training and they take care of it.
Hire a virtual assistant. - Caution: You can't expect them to fix
all the problems you have. You have to spend a lot of time training
them.
Challenges you need to solve here are:
1. Too much work
2. Not enough time
3. You don't have to hire a full-time employee to work 40 hours a
week and pay them benefits.
Having systems and processes in place:
What are you doing throughout your day that you can systematize or
put into a process that you can just do once or twice more and then
have to do minimal work for it from then on in?
There is never a perfect time. You're never going to want to
give up your money to hire somebody but you have to consider:
Your time
What you're not doing
The cost of not hiring somebody.
I have three candidates I really like, how do I
choose?
1. Here are things you can ask yourself:
Do they all have the technical ability and do they think they can
handle it?
Do they match your needs?
Do you need them to be timely and to operate with very little
direction?
Do you want them to be part-advisor? You ask them and they give you
feedback?
Do you want someone that needs strict guidance and step-by-step but
they execute really well?
Do you want someone that only communicates once a week with you or
once a day?
2. Make sure their culture is right.
Find someone that fits with you and not you fitting with
them.
Find one that matches your style or your needs.
Know what motivates them. It's okay if they want to do other things
not related to your business but it's just knowing what kind of
person they are, how they function, and what drives or excites
them.
3. Have them take on a test run.
Give them a test job or a test quote and let them walk you through
the process.
Give them a real sample to work through and see the results they
provide back to you.
Books, People, & Resources:
Fivver
Upwork
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