I was having a conversation with a group of entrepreneurs, and they were bemoaning the fact that they didn’t have enough staff to help them implement all of the great ideas the group was generating. I think one of the women said, “I want it now, I don’t want to have to think about it, I just want it done and I want the perfect person to just handle everything for me.”
I can totally relate… Four years ago, I wanted someone exactly like that. We all do. But none of us wants to think about the learning curve we’re going to have to go through to build our teams.
Some of the group realized that they weren’t implementing all of our suggestions because they didn’t WANT to put up their own opt-in page, or look for a designer, or whatever steps were required to do that next thing. So they avoided those things, and it just stayed on the “to do” list (and eventually fell off).
But that resistance isn’t helpful — and it’s costing them money.
All they see is the outlay of time and money to hire someone, but what they don’t see is the revenue they’re not earning by avoiding hiring and avoiding taking on these new projects
When your resistance to something, like hiring staff, is preventing you from moving forward in your business the problem isn’t the lack of staff… It’s you.
Are your fears holding you back?
Here’s a little rule of thumb: when it seems a lot easier not to do something than to do it, there’s probably some fears or resistance coming up around that thing. Hiring is one great example.
We as entrepreneurs can come up with a lot of concerns and fears around hiring a team member, like:
- It will take me more time to figure out how to train them than to just do it myself
- Do I have enough work for this person to do?
- What if things get tight or start NOT going well?
- Where will I find them?
- How will I know if it is a good investment?
- Is it really going to be worth the time and effort to train and deal with payroll?
- Can I afford it?
- Have I got the skills and time to prepare for delegation?
And it’s not like these are crazy things to be thinking about. In fact, if you were just running around, hiring people willy-nilly without thinking through some of these things, I would be equally concerned for you!
But while these are all things to think about and consider, they aren’t major roadblocks. Like the proverbial mountain of a molehill, we make these into bigger problems than they actually are.
If you look at them as simply questions to address, rather than huge problems or fears to be solved, you can move forward more quickly and easily. I’ve even created a worksheet to help you get started working through some of the issues you should ask before hiring a team member — click here to grab it for yourself.
Not hiring is costing you money
Here’s the thing: In nearly every case I can think of, business owners who hire strategically earn more money than they spend.
ROI is a funny thing. We talk a lot about knowing the ROI on something in order to make good financial decisions, but guess what: you just don’t KNOW until you’ve done something for awhile. By 90 days, you will know if your team member is giving you more peace of mind or less. And then you can alter your strategy.
Hiring your first team member is not a marriage proposal. You can change staff, move on, and cancel your contract whenever you want to.
But like many things, you have to start before you’re ready. Two years from now, you’ll probably wish you started using a team member sooner than you did.
If you think you might suck at delegation, how are you EVER going to get better unless you, ahem… start delegating?
If you’re facing a lot of resistance to hiring a team member you obviously need, try these steps:
- Define your team parameters BEFORE you find the person. This ensures that you’re matching a person to the requirements, instead of falling in love with a person who isn’t a good fit for you.
- Document your processes so that you can easily see which parts you can hand off and which you must do yourself. Actually write things down so that when you do hire, you have the instructions ready to go.
- Find someone willing to work on a project or short-term basis. You don’t have to jump through the hoops of hiring a full-time employee to start delegating. Pick one task and hire someone for the project. Start small.
How do you know when you are actually ready for this step?
To be honest, I don’t often see the problem of people acquiring staff before they are ready; more often I see someone’s business start to crash because they have put off hiring for too long and can’t keep six plates juggling in the air.
That’s a recipe for disaster — but it’s a disaster you can avoid.
If you can identify tasks that you can hand off to another person (use my worksheet to help), and that will free you up to do the work that more directly brings in revenue for your business — ready or not, you’re ready to hire someone.