Some businesses will never need to make any hires. They are small enough or niche enough for the business owner to do all the work. Others may need to hire employees, but they don’t reach the point where they can.
Most business owners, however, if they want to build their business up into something much bigger and more successful, will need to consider hiring at least one person, and probably more than one. Yet knowing when the time is right to do this is a dilemma. Start too soon, and you could overstretch the business’s finances. Wait too long, and you might have damaged the business irreparably. Here are some tips on when you should hire someone and what to look out for.
When It Will Make You More Money
We can’t shy away from the fact that hiring someone can cost a lot of money. If you go through a recruitment agency, you will need to pay a percentage of the employee’s salary to them. However, even if you don’t use this technique and you search for people yourself, it will cost money to advertise, and when the time comes to interview candidates, you will need to stop working on the business to do it, which also costs money. Plus you need to know about taxes, about workers’ compensation and who is required to have it, about sick benefits and vacation days, and these can cost money too.
Yet if this cost can be offset against the fact that, by hiring an employee, you will be able to make more money in the business overall, then it is time to do just that. This is even more true if your business would be stunted if you didn’t take an additional pair of hands-on to help you.
When You Need Something Specific
No one knows how to do everything, and even solo business owners will come unstuck at some point, whether it’s something to do with IT, accounting, marketing, customer service, deliveries, or something else that your business needs to do. If you’re not an expert in a particular area, and if you taking on those tasks will either stop you doing what you are good at, or potentially cause problems in the business because you don’t know how to produce quality work (or both), then it could well be time to hire someone who does know how to do it.
Hiring someone for a specific job can significantly improve the professionalism of your business, and it means you won’t make mistakes and upset customers. If you don’t need someone on a full-time basis, having a part-time colleague can be just as useful.
When You Need Company
Finally, although some people love the idea of running a business by themselves, making all the decisions, enjoying all the profits, and not having anyone to think about when deciding what needs to happen next, for some this can be a rather lonely way of working.
Although it’s never a good idea to hire someone just because you need some company in the office or you want to be able to bounce ideas off another person, if the other criteria fit and you can afford to pay them, it can make work much more pleasant to have someone else around.
© New To HR