One of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur is hiring. When should you make that kind of investment? And, what roles should you fulfill first? At the end of this article, you’ll know the perfect time and person to add to your team. Here’s everything you gotta know…
The Purpose of Adding Team Members
Other than the fact that you’re overwhelmed, are you hiring for the right reasons? The fact of the matter is that will be unclear if you don’t understand the purpose of expansion….
ADVANCEMENT OF YOUR COMPANY AND ITS MISSION.
It is impossible to achieve significant success without other people. Therefore, a small business is doomed to plateau at a certain point.
But whether you are solo or need to add to an existing team…
When can you be certain it’s the perfect time to recruit?
What You Must Know BEFORE Taking on Employees…
The main mistake I see business owners make — solopreneurs in particular — is hiring people too early. Specifically, they get new people and start teaching them a broken business process.
As a result, the entrepreneurs have invested in someone that is set up to fail. So, the real question is…
IS WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW WORKING?
And, I’m not talking about it in a superficial way where you have a few clients and have the expenses paid…
In general, do you have solid procedures for delivering your product?
Do you have a steady flow of traffic and revenue?
Above all, is your company profitable?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, then it’s the perfect time to consider expanding your workforce. But, you need to be intentional about it…
What to Do At the Perfect Time to Hire
From this point on, I am going to assume that you have nailed down your business processes and are making money.
Otherwise, you’re not ready for these next steps. In that case, I encourage you to go back to the basics of starting a business.
Now that’s out of the way, the key to effectively scaling is to duplicate yourself. But before I tell you how, understand this…
NO ONE WILL EVER DO THINGS AT THE SAME LEVEL YOU WILL FOR YOUR COMPANY!
No one is going to be as passionate or invested as you. However, there are ways to ensure that you get great people on board that deliver results.
It all starts by outlining your successful actions. That, in turn, will let you know the perfect role it’s time to onboard first…
Exercise to “Clone” Yourself
The first step to scale your operations is to write down everything you do each day. And, I don’t mean just an overview…
I WANT YOU TO LIST EVERY TASK YOU DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Aim for roughly a dozen actions to start. Then, the next step is to sort those activities into categories on a piece of paper…
- What you do to ensure your business succeeds.
- Tasks you’re managing that are not the best use of your time.
- What activities impact your bottom line the most?
- Which of those do you like and don’t like doing?
The layout of your sheet should look like this…
This creates the “skeleton” of job descriptions you’ll write in a moment. But, it also guides you to what positions you’ll need first.
No matter what “title” you eventually name it, they will fall under three umbrella terms. And, this is the perfect time to define them…
The Three Types of Roles
As I mentioned, every job under the sun can be sorted into three categories…
COORDINATOR, PRODUCER, AND MANAGER.
An example of a coordinator role would be an executive assistant. This person helps you organize and fulfill smaller activities while you go out and get new business.
The producer position is what it sounds like. They go out and produce revenue for the company. Naturally, this includes but is not limited to salespeople.
Last, is the manager or integrator. These individuals have a higher responsibility than a coordinator role. Managers can oversee production and activity over entire areas of your business.
The goal of all of these jobs is so you can focus your attention on your strengths — i.e. what makes your business great.
AFTER ALL, THE MORE YOU EARN, THE MORE FREEDOM YOU’LL HAVE.
Following that same logic, the perfect time for each of these roles is based on your income…
Job to Fulfill by Revenue
I spoke earlier about how most business owners start taking on employees too early in the context of SOPs.
Nonetheless, the same principle applies to doing it too early regarding your bottom line…
TRUTH IS YOU SHOULD BE DOING EVERYTHING IN YOUR BUSINESS YOURSELF UNTIL YOU ARE MAKING OVER $200,000 A YEAR.
Only then is the perfect time to add people to keep expanding. The order to do that goes like this…
When your revenue is between $200 and $400K, you should add a coordinator to your staff…
Between $400 and $600K, you want to bring on another producer to increase revenue.
Then $600K and above, you’ll start needing managers to keep operations running smoothly.
Now, you know who you need. This is how you write up a killer job description that attracts the right talent and sets the correct expectations…
How to Create a PERFECT Job Description
How you describe the role you need to be filled is not just for job postings. It also helps set the stage for new hires when they are onboarded.
Ideally, a thoroughly put-together job description would lay out:
- The role’s objectives.
- How the employee was expected to work with other departments or teams.
- And, how their performance would be measured and targets.
Here is another reference sheet you can use to help you visually work through that:
As you can see, there is a portion of this sheet that includes who is fulfilling that activity now. Because of that, this exercise can help you evaluate the performance of the team you currently have…
It’s also the Perfect Time to Start Letting Go…
I know this is an article on hiring. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of letting people who aren’t helping your business grow.
KEEPING THOSE PEOPLE ON IS NOT DOING THEM A FAVOR. AND, IT’S HOLDING YOUR BUSINESS BACK!
Use this time to re-evaluate if the employees you have are hitting your criteria for success in their roles. Let the ones that don’t go find what they do best.
Great people are worth their weight in gold once you find them. And so far, I’ve laid out a solid way to find them.
But, how do you get these rockstars to stay?
The Way You Keep These Perfect People for a LONG TIME
Together, we’ve worked out who you need to hire based on where your business is at financially.
Nevertheless, another issue entrepreneurs face is turnover. That could be an entire other article on its own, but I wanted to touch on it here.
AS LONG AS YOUR COMPANY IS GROWING AND YOUR EMPLOYEES HAVE NEW OPPORTUNITIES, THEY WILL STICK WITH YOU.
That relies on strong leadership — you.
Be Great and Keep Growing with Great People,
Grant Cardone
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