Small Business Tips – Hire Your First Employee
Before you rush into hiring someone, give it a second. Bear in mind that all businesses fluctuate and that adding someone to your team will be a sharp cut to your current budget.
So, you have finally made it! You dream of owning your business came true and now you are to go a step further – you need to hire people you know you’ll be able to move forward.
With all the excitement about starting out, it’s only logical your judgment will be a bit clouded. Plus, you are a newbie in hiring people – it’s not just about the fluffed up CV. There are a few more factors you need to include, and we’re enlisting those we find most important:
1. Be smart and honest
When hiring people, you first need to know how much help you actually need. Once you have set the number of candidates you’ll be interviewing, know exactly what you need them for and be open about it – don’t ever be vague in the job interview.
Be straight, concise and to the point – this way you are saving your time and the interviewee’s time. Listen to what they have to say and don’t neglect their body language – do they look interested? Optimistic? Willing to learn? Good!
2. Be cautious
When you first start, everything will be rainbows and butterflies. There’ll be a lot of work to do, but there’s going to be a lot of money as well. You’ll think you are on top of the world and it’s time you hired help. But, before you rush into hiring someone, give it a second. Bear in mind that all businesses fluctuate and that adding someone to your team will be a sharp cut to your current budget.
So, give it some time. Wait and see how everything goes, and if after a few months nothing changes, or things even getter better – then it’s time you added a new team member!
3. Hire attitude
Naturally, you’ll want to hire a person with amazing skills, awesome CV, years of experience and a great attitude. Newsflash – you’ll rarely find something like that in one person. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s true. The key to hiring a new person is knowing that perfect in business is a mask served on interviews.
Once the novelty wears off, employees are just people working long hours and wanting to go home. So, be realistic about what you expect. We’d recommend you hired someone with a great attitude and a will to work. Sometimes amazing potential is hidden in people that haven’t had much experience (they’ve either just finished school, lived abroad, or any other reason) yet they are brilliant minds that learn fast and want to progress.
When someone has such an attitude – all work is done faster and they’ll be open to learning new stuff. Therefore, you’re going to be getting a person you can really rely on.
4. Don’t be shady
This pretty much relates to #1 we talked about. Save yourself and the person you are hiring some time and be clear and realistic about what you can offer.
Tell the potential employee:
- Possible and realistic salary,
- Work hours (what they actually are, not what you’d like them to be!),
- What you expect of him/her,
- How will the worker benefit from your work, and
- Are there any possibilities to climb up the business ladder, and if yes how to achieve it.
If you lie or give false data, you’re making the whole experience worse. Your employee may say “yes” to what you offered and then realize you’ve been lying and quit. And there – you lost a perfectly great worker because you weren’t open!
5. Test run
No matter how great someone’s CV is, or how great impression they made on the interview, you need to see what they are actually capable of doing. Have a probation time for your potential employee.
Don’t make it too long, though – nobody will be willing to work for nothing. Set things you expect from this person to do. Observe his/her behavior and how they fit in with the rest of the crew. Since this is your first employee, it’ll be a test run for you too – you’ll get to see what you like and dislike about people, what you are like in the role of a boss, and so on.
Usually, it doesn’t take longer than 15 days to establish whether someone is your cup of tea or not. Also, pay for this trial run. Don’t make anyone work for free – it’s rude and unprofessional.
Well, how did hiring go then?
Author Credits ::
Damian Wolf
is a writer and business consultant from Brisbane who currently works for Gasweld. He mostly writes about small business opportunities on market, creative marketing ideas and motivation. Damian is also a big tennis fan and world traveler.