15. Bringing On Your First Hire

Bringing on your first hire can be stressful. What happens if you make the wrong choice? What if you end up having to fire someone? It can feel overwhelming and scary, but to grow your business, you have to do it. 

In this episode, I’m sharing 4 tips you need to consider before you make your first hire. Knowing and implementing these steps will help you get clear on what you need, who to hire and how to make it smooth for everyone involved. 

We discuss: 

• How to prepare yourself financially…  

• Why having a lawyer review your contracts is important…

• Creating systems and documenting everything to make it easier for your new hire… 

• Why it’s important to invest in leadership training…

• Different assessments you can use to gain insights on potential staff…

Here are some highlights…

The importance of preparing financially. 

“The number one thing that you don’t wanna do is put yourself in a position where you only have enough money to pay your team and not pay yourself. You need to make sure that you are planning for profitability and you’re planning in a way where you actually can become compensated. This is a big shift that I see a lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of not thinking about before they bring on a team member.  A lot of times, that comes from that place of desperation. You’re so desperate because you’re tired, they’re doing all the work. And now you’re thinking ‘forget my salary, I just need to pay someone and hire someone because I need to go on vacation or I need the weekend off.’ So make sure that you prepare financially so that you can feel good about this hire and that you’re not sacrificing yourself and your lifestyle for the sake of having help immediately.”

Why getting operations in place is vital. 

“Getting prepared operationally means creating standard operating procedures and documenting everything before you bring someone on to your team. I cannot tell you during my days of being a virtual assistant for wedding and event planners, how many times people hired me and brought me in because they were so overwhelmed, and then when I started, they had no idea what they wanted me to do. This was really, really hard for me as a virtual assistant, because as a person who wants to help and show up to support people in their business, I could think of a million things that I could do to help them, but they honestly had no idea what they wanted me to help them with. Essentially what happens here is you become burnt out from training someone before they have even got to the place where they can support you, because everything’s in your head, it’s not on paper, it’s not in a system.”

How assessments can help you build a strong team.

“One of the best things that I ever did in my business was incorporate things like the Enneagram. There are a lot of different tools out there that help you get to know the learning style and the communication style of the person that you want on your team. Before they join your team, but also once they’re on your team, tools like the Enneagram and some of the other assessments out there, Strengthsfinder is another great one, these tools are gonna help you to not only be able to show up as the best leader possible, but to be able to create an environment where your employees and your new team members can thrive. Once I started to incorporate the Enneagram into my business, it allowed me to see not only how I show up in things like conflict, but how I show up as a leader.”