When you hire for your small business, you're taking a huge risk. Not only are you putting your full trust into someone, but you're also making a significant financial investment. So while it's understandable to be hesitant going into the hiring process, it's important to remind yourself that expanding your team is necessary in order to succeed. To help you stay on track and hire the right person for the job, here are three tips to keep in mind before you begin interviewing:
You can't do it all
If you're considering hiring for your small business, chances are you have already realized you can't do it all. There are only so many hours in a day, and spreading yourself too thin only guarantees one thing - failure. According to Murray Newlands of Forbes, "Many entrepreneurs take on a 'do-it-all' mentality that can be detrimental to business. You may think you can save money by doing everything yourself but that’s rarely the case. Instead, this will often result in poor quality of work because you spread yourself too thin."
So in order to succeed, you have to be confident that the people who hire will give their all to the responsibilities you have designated to them. But how are you supposed to do this? By asking yourself:
- What am I best at?
- What areas of my business are being neglected?
- Where do I need the most assistance?
Figure out what your hiring process entails
Before you begin accepting applications, it's critical that you put a hiring process into place. Hiring can be chaotic, so the more organized you are from the beginning, the better. After all, you don't want to drive any candidates away due to lack of organization.
Whether you develop your own process or put a system into place, you need to make sure it includes the following:
- An effective, targeted job description (easily found on your company careers page)
- A job posting plan of attack (determine your budget for advertising the open position(s))
- Application/resume storage
- Interview guides and scorecards
- Reference checks and skills assessments
Understand this is going to take time
The point of hiring someone new is because you don't have time to do it all. But initially, it's going to take even more. From sourcing and interviewing to ultimately training that new hire, you're going to have to invest a few hours each day if you want to make the best hiring decision. So embrace it - before you know it, your team will be self-sufficient.
