How I Knew I Was Ready to Hire a Team
April 10, 2024
Category: business
how I knew I was ready to hire a team
it’s not for everyone but it can be the biggest blessing
Let me start by saying hiring a team is NOT for everyone, nor does it make you have a more “successful” business. There’s a lot of stress and headache that comes with the additional responsibility of knowing other people are counting on you to provide for their families. BUT at the same time, when done well, it can be the biggest blessing.
With that being said, here are three things I did when I knew I was ready to bring on additional help!
01 | I decided what I wanted to hand off
I recognized my time became more important than the money I was making. This is a big one! I realized I was doing tasks in my business that I absolutely DREADED. They were taking up a lot of time that could’ve been better spent in an area I’m more skilled at and actually enjoy. I decided to start by outsourcing these FIRST!
This looked like hiring a contract worker to help save out final branding files. To a non-designer, this might not make a ton of sense but saving out files is actually a fairly time-intensive, tedious task. It requires a lot of organization (NOT my strong suit!) and time that I realized I didn’t actually have when I needed to be focused on growing my business. I wanted to focus more on the deep creative work I knew I was good at rather than production work that I knew could easily be outsourced.
02 | I took it slow!
Going directly from soloprenuer to a team of full-time, salaried employees scared the sh*t out of me. That’s why I first started outsourcing those small tasks I hated to a contract worker and then from there SLOWLY built on that. At the time, I didn’t have plans to hire full-time employees. That allowed me to take my time with growing my business instead of diving in head first.
I really enjoyed having contract workers at first. With that, there are pros and cons to all different types of employees. I began outgrowing the contract worker stage when I realized I needed some more consistency. In my experience, contract workers often had their own businesses they were working on which meant some weeks they were available while others they might not be! This was tricky to plan for and to know when I could rely on work and when I couldn’t.
After I realized a contract role might not be the best move long-term, I shifted to hiring part-time employees because honestly, I was still afraid to make the switch to full-time. Part-time was great because it gave me a bit more consistency, however, I started to run into a similar issue of only having someone available for a set number of hours per week.
I realized that I had to make the shift to full-time if I wanted team members who had the commitment and availability to help grow Brighten Made.
With all of that being said, my best advice for you is to take it SLOW. Baby steps! It’s a huge investment to hire someone with a full-time salary. It’s less risky to hire someone at an hourly rate (obviously!), but beyond financial reasons, it also allows you to get a sense of who would be a good fit for the role and who wouldn’t be. Over the years, I was able to dream up the perfect person who had the necessary skills and qualifications so that when I got to the point of hiring someone full-time, I knew exactly who I was looking for.
03 | I figured out the type of business I wanted to run + the boss I wanted to be!
It’s important to understand your brand’s core values and mission before you bring on additional help. It’s also important that you know how to do said task so you can have a good understanding of the time it takes to outsource it. For example, if you were to hire an employee to build out project timelines for your clients but you’ve never built out a project timeline yourself, then you can’t properly guide them on how to do it. I have worn just about every hat in my business so that if there comes a day when I need to step in, I can do it.
Additionally, you want to instill your brand’s core values in your employees from the beginning. This allows them to know what type of business you operate under and set expectations for their roles.
For me with Brighten Made, I knew how much I valued communication with our client process and have since really stressed it to my girls so they can excel in the roles they’re best at. I value working in a space that is collaborative, uplifting, and transparent but also just fun. I want my employees to know they can come to me with literally anything and there will be zero judgment on my end. I also want them to feel like their opinion truly matters because it does. I value their input and am always looking for ways where we can work on projects all together as a team because I think that’s when our work is the strongest.
As an employer, I try to instill a human-first approach which is why once a week we chat about the highs and lows of our lives. We all work remotely but once a year I make it a point to come together from our corners of the midwest so we can see each other face-to-face. I genuinely care to know what’s going on with them and how I can support them. I’m far from perfect when it comes to being a #BOSS but over the years I’m continuing to learn and grow and find ways on how I can best lead.
Do you have any questions about hiring a team or knowing if it’s the right decision for you!? Save this blog post and refer back to it later!
