How to Hire Employees for Your Business

[00:00:00] Corey Winter: Hey there bosses! Corey from the Being Boss team here. I'm popping into let you know about a new way for you to stay up to date in the world as a creative entrepreneur, Brewed. Brewed is a weekly email curated by the Being Boss team just for you. We share articles, podcasts, and resources from around the internet on the topics of mindset, money and productivity to help you show up and do the work in your business.

[00:00:24] Learn more and sign up for free at beingboss.club/brewed. That's beingboss.club/B R E W E D.

[00:00:37] Emily Thompson: Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson. And in this episode, I'm wrapping up a two-part series on hiring with Corey from the Being Boss team. Here, we'll be covering the logistics of hiring from creating a job description to finding the ideal candidate and finally making the hire.

[00:01:01] You can find all the tools, books, and links we reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club. And if you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.

[00:01:15] Before we dive in bosses, I have a podcast for you to add to your queue. The Remarkable People Podcast podcast hosted by Guy Kawasaki. Remarkable People helps you better understand the changing world with interviews from thought leaders, legends, and iconoclasts like Julia Cameron author of the Artist's Way, which I recently listened to as I continue to do my own artist way practice.

[00:01:37] And it added a whole new layer of appreciation for the process after listening to Julia's interview. So when you're done with this episode, head on over and listen to the Remarkable People Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:01:55] Corey Winter: Last time on being Boss. It was a race against the clock as Emily Thompson fended off the tireless questioning by podcast, companion, Corey, winter, about the process of preparing yourself and your business to hire help. The heroine battled the seemingly unstoppable waves of questions for nearly an hour.

[00:02:13] But when the smoke cleared, she realized the unthinkable had happened. She was out of time and most important question remained unasked and unanswered. How do you actually hire someone? So now when the epic conclusion of its explosive two episode event, will Emily be able to do justice, that she uncovers the logistics of actually hiring someone, stay tuned and find out on this episode of Being Boss.

[00:02:42] I literally wrote us credit for that. It was so much fun.

[00:02:47] Emily Thompson: You did a really good job reading it too. I would have messed that up eight times. I love that for you, Corey. Good job. Good job. That is exactly what we're here to do. And not only did I realize I was out of time, but over the past week between us completing the episode, and realizing that we only got through half of our agenda and

[00:03:13] today, when we decide to show up and do the rest of this sort of two part. Now two-part episode, I realized that I didn't do the last question. Very good justice.

[00:03:23] Corey Winter: You know, we could, we could have just said that, redo it, that it did that part out of the original episode. And just like, but that's fine. We're going to do it again.

[00:03:29] Emily Thompson: I thought about that.

[00:03:31] I thought about that. And either we can keep it and I'll let you be the judge of this on air producer. Either you keep it in and everyone just knows that I'm redoing that last question and giving you a few extra tidbits, or if you do want to edit it out and maybe this is the first time everyone hears it, I'm fine either way.

[00:03:51] Corey Winter: Let's just get into it. So why do you not like your original answer to that question?

[00:03:56] Emily Thompson: I feel like I was just like an hour into an episode. No brace was going no. Go with this shit. So here we are. I had a week to think about it and I thought, no. And the question is slash was what type of worker to hire, should you hire?

[00:04:12] And the differences between them. So we laid out full-time employee, part-time employee contractor, an intern, and I feel like I was a little, all over the place about what I was saying. So I came back in here and put some more notes.

[00:04:23] Corey Winter: Okay, well, what you got?

[00:04:26] Emily Thompson: Let's dive into it. Okay. So really want to talk about maybe all of them at once for half a second, because one of the things that I run into, whatever I'm talking to bosses who are looking to make their first hire, a lot of them think that they need to hire a full-time employee.

[00:04:41] That that's almost the only next step for them. And that is so not the case. In fact, I think a full-time employee, you should be your second, third, fourth plus employee that you are hiring. It's the kind of employee that you hire whenever you are like doing it. I always think of, or I find myself wanting a full-time employee.

[00:05:06] And I talked in the first half of this little two-parter that I've sort of released this idea of, of wanting of like pigeonholing myself into like, I definitely want a full-time employee for this position. For the most part, especially here at Being Boss. It is a little different at Almanac for just like, and it's, that's another thing that I've thought a lot about over the past week, since we record that first part is how these two businesses are so different.

[00:05:33] And I think the difference between them that I've sort of pinpointed and why it is that I can be so flexible at Being Boss. Why I have to be a little more rigid and traditional at Almanac is really this idea, or it's really the skill level of who I'm hiring. At Being Boss, I'm hiring people who are bosses at what they do one way or the other more or less.

[00:05:53] And I've definitely hired some people on before who were like, who, you know, Just out of college, maybe sometimes even still in college or in just trying to get into the industry that they're trying to get into. But for the most part, the people that I work with at Being Boss, our bosses, whereas Almanac, I'm hiring people who are still in college and just looking for a college like summer job, right.

[00:06:20] Or whatever. So I have to have more traditional rules in place because they don't know how they want to work. They're just coming to me because they heard they, that I had a job that had to do with crystals. And that sounded fun, whatever it may be. So I have to build more structures at Almanac because of who I'm hiring, as opposed to Being Boss.

[00:06:39] There's just like a different, different sort of level of skill and investment in whatever industry they're in. At Almanac, you know, I will interview a high school or a college kid who like wants to grow up and be a politician or whatever, but they just need a job for the semester, whatever it may be.

[00:06:56] So.

[00:06:57] Corey Winter: Does the fact that Being Boss is basically all remote while Almanac is in-person almost exclusively playing into it.

[00:07:06] Emily Thompson: Absolutely. So, you know, one of the things we talked about in the last one is that for contractors, you can't tell them when to work, right, or more or less, employees, you give them a time to be there and at Almanac, because what we do is in person, I don't want you to just sort of like showing up on my doorstep at midnight, because that's when you work best.

[00:07:27] Right. Whereas if you're a freelancer or you work for yourself or, you know, our remote employee, you may be like in here working at midnight and that's like totally on you. I have to give them hours where we're going to be in the office. So that employee role is a lot more mandatory at Almanac than it is at Being Boss, where I can just, you know, hire a professional in something and they can do their work whenever they want to.

[00:07:51] So I have thought a lot about that difference between the two companies. And you may find yourself in one of those and one of those two places, if you do a lot of, in real life work, as opposed to online work, you may have to, you know, have that play into it, or even skill level of the kinds of people you work for, or you work with, who work for you.

[00:08:11] So that's sort of a little foundation that I want to lay. And then let's go back into full-time employee. So as a boss, a full-time employee is quite likely, or as a boss, who's listening to this episode, I would imagine 90, 85 to 90% of you do not need a full-time employee based on what I know about our audience in general.

[00:08:34] I think about a full-time employee when I need a lot of help. And, or their full attention on what it is that I'm doing. And there's only a couple of roles really at Being Boss. And even in some contexts at Almanac, when I need that, it's going to be something like, like a business manager role, like someone who's going to come in and help you run the business.

[00:08:59] Or it's going to be someone who's delivering for you, a large key process in your business. So let's say, let's say you, what's a good example here. Let's say you develop websites. That's a easy one to talk about. Right? Right. And you want to bring in someone who's going to be your developer, right. It's a key process in your web development business, and you need someone to come in and do that thing for you.

[00:09:27] So it may be you go off and do just the design or you're doing the sales or you are, you know, whatever it may be.

[00:09:35] Corey Winter: Well, yes. So when you hired me for Indie Shopography our website business. When you hired me, it was not as the developer. And so I was actually hired part-time just to do like client support when it actually came time to make me the developer.

[00:09:49] That's when I went full time. So that checks out.

[00:09:53] Emily Thompson: Right. So it's a key, it's a key process and it's a large key process. Like you need someone 30, 35, 40 hours a week to do this key process in your business. So those are really the two situations in which I see a full-time employee necessary. And most boss businesses don't need one because I see there being a couple of different sort of, factors that need to be in place.

[00:10:16] First of all, you're probably going to be a couple of years into your business, unless you're one of those bosses who just like hit the ground running and I see you out there. I've seen y'all you launch your business and you make, you know, a hundred, 200, $300,000 in your first year or two of business. You may be candidates, but for the bulk of boss businesses, you don't need to hire a full-time employee for a while.

[00:10:39] I think it's Mike Michalowicz and one of his books may be Clockwork. No, I think it's Profit First, actually. And Profit First, one of the metrics he has for making a hire. And I can't remember if he's talking part-time or full-time. But you need to be making about $250,000 a year in your business, depending on what your business is, because you have to think about the fact that you are responsible for someone's full-time salary.

[00:11:05] So if you're just making 30, 40, $50,000 in your business, even like 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred, how are you paying yourself? You're living wage and someone else, one, two, when your business is only making that much money, your business needs to be able to pay you. Number one, all of your vendors and your products and your like you'll have your supplies and things like the cost of doing business and someone else's full-time salary and the benefits required for you wherever you are, for your full-time employee.

[00:11:37] You also have to have your shit together. Period. If you're bringing someone on to put their life's work into your business, you better not be a hot mess. Your business better not be a hot mess. And there is sort of like, you may bring someone in to help you, but no, one's going to be a magic bullet for your business.

[00:11:59] No one. Occasionally that happens. And those are like, that's like winning the lottery and you should not just count on winning the lottery. So you absolutely need to have your shit together, which means you need to be making a lot of money. You need to be, a couple years into your business. And even then the things that you need to delegate to a full-time person,

[00:12:22] usually over those first couple of hires is spread a call across a couple of different roles, right? The person, if you're a small boss business and you need someone to come to your bookkeeping and you also need social media help, and then you need someone to manage your website and whatever. That's rarely going to be one person that you're going to hire on full-time to do all of those things.

[00:12:44] You need a couple of different contractors or part-time people to come in and take these individual roles so that everything can scale up. So that then potentially you have the ability to hire on a full-time person for whatever key process or our overarching roles that you need filled. So when it comes to full-time employees, those are the things that I believe you need to have in place.

[00:13:07] At least like the ones that I thought of over the past week, there are probably other ones, that qualify you for being ready to hire a full-time employee. Not to mention all the benefits and things that you also have to offer to a full-time employee as well, depending on where you are. Also, again, I'm not a lawyer nor a like employee expert or any of those things.

[00:13:28] I'm just sharing my experiences here. So if that's full-time you want to talk about part-time next?

[00:13:34] Corey Winter: Yes, full-time. Okay. Part-time

[00:13:37] Emily Thompson: That wasn't part-time. Part-time is a really great way to start easing into hiring employees. These are going to be, this is going to be a person who is going to fill a role that he's less than 30 ish hours.

[00:13:49] Again, I think different places have different requirements for what equates to part-time and what equates to full-time. So know what that is. And most people's businesses I know, hire on a part-time person, five, 10 hours a week, and it may grow. That may be exactly what it needs to be. I mean, this is a really good capacity for most boss businesses.

[00:14:09] And there's also this like availability of flexibility here. Or maybe you hire someone in for five hours a week and then it grows to 10 and then 15 and maybe one day they become your full-time employee. That's been working with you for years and know so many parts of your business that they're able to fill a full-time role for what it is that you're doing, or maybe they just stay as a part-time employee for the rest of forever.

[00:14:34] These kinds of hires are also really great for parents, for people who need that sort of extra flexibility, for whatever reason, for side hustlers, for multi-passionate to, you know, don't want a full-time job anywhere they want to spread their energy, energy across multiple part-time roles, whatever it may be.

[00:14:52] I feel like a lot of people fall into this one for one reason or another. And I think this is a really great starting point for most boss' businesses. Again, because likely you're in a place where you need someone in to hit, you need multiple people in to hit specific parts of your business so that you can focus in on what it is that you most want to do.

[00:15:16] Any questions about that one? Okay, perfect. Here's a little note on hiring employees or just having employees as opposed to contractors. Cause we'll talk about that one next, and that is whenever you are hiring an employee, you are responsible for providing tools in some cases, education, and otherwise creating boundaries for working like vacation days and sick days.

[00:15:40] And those sorts of things. For a contractor, you don't really get to name those things like that's part of your contract. But for employees that use, we're a define these boundaries, and you sort of hold that container. And then also remember for full-time you may be responsible for benefits. So figure that out before you make that move for sure.

[00:16:04] Next up. I want to talk contractors because when I am hiring for the most part, anybody, and again, this is a little more true for Being Boss than it has been for Almanac in the past, because Almanac is a bit more of a traditional business. And that like, you know, I get college kids coming in.

[00:16:22] They want to be a sales associate, whatever. I'm not going to like, be like, okay, you're going to be contractor with it. Like, no, just come in and let's do it. If you don't work, bye. Whatever it may be. And if you do, high five. At Being Boss and at Indie before that, one of the things that I really love doing, especially as a boss business, because if you are a solo preneur, you hiring on someone as a really big thing that you are doing in your business.

[00:16:46] You need to make sure that it is going to be the right fit. I like to hire on anyone as a contractor first for six weeks and then move them into a part-time or a full-time role. And during the six weeks, I call it a trial period where probation, it is like probation. And you can do this within the context of employment as well.

[00:17:08] And honestly, one of the things that I've even found over the past couple of years is sometimes it's better to do this as an employee, because then there's no sort of different than wages as a contractor, they're going to be paying their own taxes. So usually contractors sort of hourly rates in situations like this are going to be higher than they will be whenever they're an employee, because then you're paying their taxes.

[00:17:30] And so even though it all sort of comes out in the wash, there's a perception difference that employees don't usually like to be paid less, right? Once they're an employee, even though previously it was just taxes, they made it look like more. But one of the things that you can do is do trial periods as contractors or as employees before moving into employment.

[00:17:52] But for contractors, these are really great for when you were looking for someone to come in and do something specific. In your business or do sort of a one-off project, or if you're looking to hire a sort of an agency or a team to come in and do something, but you're not hiring the team, you're just contracting the team to do it.

[00:18:12] You're looking for someone with an expertise that you need. There is a lot of gray area. We talked about this a little bit in the first part, and I've seen this sort of all over the place. I know that there are sort of official rules, but who follows those when it comes to the difference between contractors and employees.

[00:18:33] But really the, the biggest difference is that a contractor is making their rules for employment. And there is some negotiation in that contract, including when they work and all of those sorts of things. Also, usually these people are doing what it is that they're doing for other people. I will also say that a good rule of thumb.

[00:18:53] And this is something that I've heard amongst boss' business owners who are in, who are hiring people consistently, right? They have teams of employees, they work with teams of contractors. And those sorts of things is these days a good rule of thumb for when it comes to hiring for expertise, contractors with a business tend to be more favorable and usually more professional than those who are just freelancing.

[00:19:21] So for a while, this freelancer economy was and continues to be a sizeable thing. But for a lot of business owners who have, you know, gone through the trials and errors of hiring and working with contractors and employees, et cetera, there is this preference building around hiring contractors. We are not just hiring the freelancer to do the thing, but you are hiring a

[00:19:49] a single, sometimes it's solopreneur that is operating under an LLC with a legit business model, which is something that we have talked about here. Like as a freelancer, define who it is that you work for, what it is that you do, like become more professional in what it is that you do. And you can, I don't know, have more longevity in your quote unquote freelance career, but you've really sort of moved into the world of solo preneurship.

[00:20:13] So if you are a freelancer here, listening to that know that that is a move that I'm seeing in the, in the world of boss business owners who have years under their belt of working with freelancers and contractors. Lastly interns. Oh, actually think about contractors, too. They usually cost more.

[00:20:35] Corey Winter: Yeah. So, okay.

[00:20:36] Ask the question. I guess it goes both ways to just depends, but who sets the price in those cases? When you're hiring a contractor.

[00:20:45] Emily Thompson: The contractor, I almost never negotiate rates y'all I have, and I'll will, if they're, if they are ridiculous rates, but whenever I'm hiring an employee, I'm setting the rate.

[00:20:57] Whenever I'm hiring a contractor, they're setting the rate, I'm paying for an expertise that they are the expert in, who am I to like put a dollar bill on that? Right. So a good question, but in a contract relationship, they are saying the price though, you should be more or less. We've talked a lot about, you know, a red flag for a potential client is someone who's going to like question your

[00:21:21] packaged prices or whatever it may be, but it is also part of the world before online business, that prices are negotiated occasionally and there is like a pushing that's too far, but also I feel like us online business people have created this funny little bubble where you're really bent out of shape when people question are our prices.

[00:21:40] So that's just a thing to check for everyone. But you can also not budge is if you so choose because as a contractor, you do set the price. Someone may come to you with a budget. Everyone sort of works differently, but in general, with employees, you, as the boss are setting the rate also open to negotiation, right?

[00:22:02] And then with contractors, contractors are setting the rate sometimes open to negotiation and then last but not least, and just quickly sort of repeat what I said last time when it comes to interns. You're doing it for good fields. You are doing it to teach them. You're not getting free, your cheap labor.

[00:22:23] They're not going to come to you with very much expertise at all. They're coming to you like the whole nature of an internship is that they are learning a skill. So it is your responsibility to teach. So do not consider re interns as a, as a low cost employment option. You're going to get what you pay for.

[00:22:42] Indeed when I have a child and a business, because you don't have to pay them and you can use them. You don't have to pay the minimum wage to do whatever you want.

[00:22:54] Corey Winter: We do not file. That is not Being Boss approved to do not hire children.

[00:22:59] Emily Thompson: No, you can do your choice a hundred percent. Yeah, no, you don't do that.

[00:23:07] Don't go steal children. That's weird. But no, when it comes to, that's actually a good one to Goodwin to think about here. You know, if you have kids put them to work, I love that. I, there were, there have been days where I had little, my little kid back when she was little sorting papers, like all the ones that look the same, put them in these piles or whatever it may be, or, you know, we don't like envelopes anymore, but kids are great for licking envelopes.

[00:23:33] Corey Winter: This isn't really the same. But when my mom was a teacher, I used to help her grade papers. Yeah. I was like eight years old creating for high school students papers.

[00:23:42] Emily Thompson: Yeah. I mean, my kid is, she'll be 14 in a couple of days, which is whacking. Whenever you buy a candle from Almanac Supply Co, the wick was applied to the sticker by a child by my child is one of, and we pay her, we actually pay her more than I think most people get paid, which is just like a whole thing in itself to consider.

[00:24:06] So she gets paid for it. Absolutely. But she is here at Almanac, doing things, doing the kinds of things that she can do. And I'm under, you know, American laws. You can use child labor if they are your children.

[00:24:20] Corey Winter: All right. Any final thoughts about interns? We kind of got off track.

[00:24:23] Emily Thompson: No, I that's really just it like, you're doing it to teach, to give back to your industry, to give back to your community, whatever it may be, but your responsibility is to teach them things and sure

[00:24:34] you can get them to go get your coffee. Like you can use that and also pay them, pay your interns well enough for sure. Okay.

[00:24:45] Corey Winter: Now that we're, now that we're halfway into this episode, we still haven't talked about why we actually came to this episode. Let's talk about the logistics of actually hiring someone.

[00:24:56] And so you've decided in your business. Okay. I'm ready for it. You thought out you got everything prepared. Now you're actually ready to hire. So first up, where do you actually go to tell people that you're hiring.

[00:25:10] Emily Thompson: Sure. Oh, actually, can we, I didn't know about this. This just popped into my head. I want to go back to creating a job description.

[00:25:17] Okay. Are we talking about squares right before we talk about where we're posting our job description, how do you make a job description? And my favorite thing is to just Google search, Google search for related jobs, to what I'm looking for and mine the internet. No, I do not copy paste. I always cause actually a job listing is one of those places where you are setting expectations, you're communicating values.

[00:25:42] You're really marketing your business to potential hires. So put it in your brand voice, make it sound like you. And also have it be clearly reflective of the kind of person you're looking for and the requirements for the job and what it is that they're going to be doing. So yes, I mine the internet for sure, for samples of what it is that I'm looking for, because there's always things, you know, when it comes to job roles, especially if it's something that you've been doing yourself for, God knows how long, it's easy to forget all the things that you do to do the thing, right?

[00:26:15] Like, let's say you're looking for someone to help you with social media and you just think, you know, someone to manage my social media, like, what does that include? I don't even know. And then you go and you look that there's actually like 15 different sort of duties required to actually fulfill the thing that you've just bucketed in your head is managing my social media, right.

[00:26:33] It can really help you do that. So I highly recommend it, but also completely rewrite it, completely rewrite it for your business and your brand because people who are out there, job searching for social media management positions, they're reading all of the job descriptions and they're totally going to see if you've just copy paste it.

[00:26:50] And is that the kind of person they want to work for? Probably not. So make the work. So that's how I like to make job descriptions. And I also save them. Like I have a little database of job descriptions that we've created for both companies, so that if I ever need to go rehire or just like use it as a template for future job, job descriptions, I can pull from it, tweak it as needed and repost it when needed as well.

[00:27:15] So now where do we put it? So first and foremost, is to align where you put it with, who you're looking for.

[00:27:28] Corey Winter: So Craigslist?

[00:27:31] Emily Thompson: If that's who you're looking for that could work in certain situations, for sure. I know some bosses who swear by hiring from within their own community. So sending it out to their newsletter list, we are hiring here's who we're looking for.

[00:27:49] I've had mixed results personally. So I don't swear by it, but I do know bosses who do swear by this who would never need to look further because the perfect person already loves their brand and already is so entrenched in what they do, that they are just excited to come work. You know, there's asterisks all over the place without one, but that may be an option for you.

[00:28:13] Some people I know scout who they're like, so they don't even post a job listing. They are on LinkedIn scouting for the people that they want. That may be an option for you. Maybe you have local job boards, maybe you have industry specific job boards. I would imagine probably every industry has industry specific job boards, or maybe you do want to do something like put it on monster jobs.

[00:28:37] Isn't that a thing, or indeed, or I don't want to look for a job in a long time. You'll if you can't tell,

[00:28:45] Corey Winter: let's ask. Okay. Specifically where does being, but I'm, this is a two-part question. Where does Being Boss post job listings?

[00:28:54] Emily Thompson: I have posted job listings on some of the main, like, I think Indeed is our go-to in terms of like all the job boards indeed.

[00:29:03] I always send a letter or an email to the community. Again, I've gotten mixed results with hiring from within the community and by mixed, I mean, some of them have actually been great. And so I will always, send it to the community. I have posted job listings on LinkedIn that like on the LinkedIn job boards.

[00:29:23] And, one of my very favorite ways is actually always to first ask my friends. Yeah. So. I'm lucky in that all of my friends are bosses.

[00:29:38] Corey Winter: Some people like including David, I think even you at one point in time said be wary of hiring your friends.

[00:29:45] Emily Thompson: Okay. Okay. Yes. So, oh, good call. So I'm not saying I don't hire my friends and that's a lie.

[00:29:50] I've totally hired my friends before I literally have one of my friends working for me at Almanac. And I'm not, I don't mean I asked my friends if they are looking for a job because all of my friends own businesses, no, they're not looking for a job, but they know people, right. They absolutely know people who are probably looking for jobs.

[00:30:10] They know me and my business well enough to go. Oh yeah. I actually know someone who's maybe perfect for this. Let me send this over to them. Whatever it may be. Actually, if you will remember, you were hired. You came to me through sort of a mutual, contact.

[00:30:26] Corey Winter: Yeah. It's actually a funny story. I, I was in college.

[00:30:29] I was looking to get my foot in the door before I actually graduated something in the website creation industry. And so I actually applied for an on-campus job for the library to maintain their website interview went well. And then about a week went by, he was like, oh, we're actually not going to hire for this position after all.

[00:30:46] But you were great. If someone comes along looking for some help, I'll send them your way. And sure enough, I think it was like a month went by kind of forgot about that entire thing. And he emails me saying, Hey, there's a local website designer looking for some help. Would you be interested? And I was like, oh, hi, cool.

[00:31:01] Sure.

[00:31:02] Emily Thompson: Right. Did I tell you a funny your site? I don't know if I ever told you this funny side of the story. Okay. So do you know how he knew I was hiring.

[00:31:11] We were drinking too much at Universal Studios. Yes. I know. Isn't that funny? I was at Universal Studios with, what was his role? He was, he, he ran this sort of writing depart, or like UNA had, a place that you could go to that would help you write papers or your resume or whatever. I can't remember like what that was called.

[00:31:36] And he ran that and I think also worked in the library as well. And, he and David's mom were really great friends. He was a professor at this university. Right. Isn't that funny? They were really great friends and, they were going to Universal Studios together. He and his partner and David's mom and David's mom asked me if I wanted to go.

[00:31:55] And like, I think pissed off all of her children along the way, which I love to very much. So we went to Universal Studios. I was with them for a couple of days, and I remember very specifically, we were at actually, maybe it was. We spent a day at what is now Disney Springs and our being at that Irish pub.

[00:32:14] And we started talking about business and I told him I was looking at hire and he was like, I think I have someone for you. And here we are. Isn't that, isn't that a funny part of that story? You didn't even

[00:32:24] know?

[00:32:24] Corey Winter: I didn't know that at all 10 years later.

[00:32:28] Emily Thompson: Anyhow.

[00:32:29] Corey Winter: So I applied for one job. I ended up working for someone else.

[00:32:33] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Right. You never know. You never never know. So I do always put it out there to my friends first, just to check their networks of like, do you know someone who would be a really good fit for this? Oh, I also always post it on my websites. Right. So people are always searching, actually have been doing some tracking of the Almanac website and people are checking our job listings pretty consistently, which I love, I will say though, that I have personally had very little luck with gym, with big job boards.

[00:33:02] Like I get tons of unqualified bleeds. I would call them. But I do think it is important to give opportunities, especially for full-time jobs. Very widely. There are some DEI concerns. So diversity equity and inclusion concerns that push for making job listings widely available. If you are just sending it to all of your white friends and all of your white friends, or just sending it to their white friends, like we are causing some issues here.

[00:33:33] Right. So if I ever send it to my friends and all of the leads that I get back or all the same kind of person, I always know that even those, there might be some gyms in here. I have to make it more widely available before I start doing my, like really collecting applications and doing interviews. So be sure to spread your listings

[00:33:58] far, farther than maybe you have before so that we are really giving, larger communities, larger, sort of swaths of our communities, the availability to see these jobs.

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[00:36:05] Corey Winter: So going back to the part two of my question that I didn't get to ask. So Being Boss kind of just hires within the community, you, you ask around what about Almanac? Because it isn't an in-person thing. Do you like do traditional job postings? Like in the newspaper?

[00:36:21] Emily Thompson: I have not done the newspaper. Whenever I look at like the comments, I, that's not my people y'all I live in the south and maybe that's wrong of me even to say, I'll ask my DEI coach about that.

[00:36:35] But, what we've done and actually gotten the best response from, especially in terms of diversity and just like across the board, like from people that I never would have had contact with before is literally putting a sign in our window. How old-school and adorable is that right? So that literally is a very sort of physical.

[00:37:00] We have paper applications in the store. People see the paper on our window. They come in, ask for those applications and job listings and we get a lot of applications, at Almanac in that very old school traditional way. And it's really serving everyone who, you know, visits that part of Chattanooga, which is a lot of people.

[00:37:23] So we do that. And then also all the other things I have definitely done Almanac jobs on, on LinkedIn. I trying to remember, I feel like I did not do the last round on the big job boards, but I can't really remember because we were getting so many applications from the sign in our window. So that's how we do it real old school.

[00:37:52] Maybe I'll do that for Being Boss next. Maybe we'll have a. Job board. No, that is not the purpose of the Almanac window. Bad idea, but that has worked really great for us at Almanac.

[00:38:01] Corey Winter: Okay. So what information are you looking for on these applications aside from name, email address?

[00:38:12] Emily Thompson: Well, it's funny. You say email address.

[00:38:14] I'll talk about that in a second. So first and foremost, check out your state's legal requirements. You can't ask some things, so make sure you're not asking unnecessary things, but it's mostly just the basics. Where have you worked? What are your references? What's your name? How to contact them at the last, the last, application that I did, I got on Google looked up, application template made my own.

[00:38:41] Of course we have the compendium of human knowledge at our fingertips. Why would you not get into that? Right. Google's my best friend actually is Google, my search engines are my best friend. Google is probably stabbed me in the back at a moment. Probably does every day for all I know. Anyhow. So I forgot to put email address on my last application.

[00:39:05] And so we had all these really great applications coming in and that was like, okay, how do I, oh, shit, I have to call them how to call them to schedule these interviews. So, the next time we do a hiring round, we'll be updating our applications to do phone and email and then a checkbox for how it is that they prefer to be contacted.

[00:39:26] So anyway, yes, how to contact them that one's very important. And mostly also, whatever it is, that's important to you for the role. So things like checking a box, if they can lift 50 pounds, if you need them to lift 50 pounds, I recently, or a couple months ago hired a candle maker. I needed them to be able to do

[00:39:48] lift 50 pounds, like over and over again. Right. Do you require a specific sort of experience or credentials? What are their like tech savviness levels? Right? Can they use Microsoft word or like that's an easy one for me or like the Adobe suite, right. Or Instagram or whatever it may be. So get, you can get in that application.

[00:40:16] Some of those, some of those items, if you want to, if you want to customize applications for each role. And I think in most instances, especially for the kinds of businesses that most bosses run, you absolutely should. For me, the whole initial contact is an application, not just sending the resume or filling out the application.

[00:40:39] Corey Winter: So that actually brings up my next question. So you have applications. Request resumes or is the application enough for you?

[00:40:50] Emily Thompson: It depends on the role if it's something like if I'm hiring a sales associate and I only care about your resume, like, you know, do you have some past sales associate skills and you, can you otherwise fill out an application?

[00:41:00] Right. Is a key word, like follow some of those basic instructions when it comes to hiring, you know, at Being Boss, like hiring some of those like upper level, upper level roles, a lot of people will send me resumes, but I usually don't care.

[00:41:15] Corey Winter: So I'm glad you said that because I have a funny story. When you hired me the interview process for Indie, you know, we got the email, we, you and I got in contact.

[00:41:28] We scheduled a time to come do the interview and I was ready for it. Like I got like all dressed up. And when I slacks in my nice polo shirt and I, and I printed out my nice resume. The career center at the campus helped me put together. I put it in a nice, nice portfolio envelope. I was so proud. Like I pretty sure I shaved my combed, my hair real nice, which I never did in college.

[00:41:54] And I showed up and we set that. I'm pretty sure you were wearing like sweat pants and like pricing ready t-shirt and we sat down just like people with like nothing else in the room. Cause like you just moved in, I guess. And we talked for like five minutes. You never once looked at my resume. It was, yeah.

[00:42:11] I was prepared for like no reason.

[00:42:14] Emily Thompson: No you weren't because I, I do remember this. I remember at least like pieces of this and the look is all that matters, right? At least, at least to me in most roles that I'm feeling like the way in my experience hiring people. Now, look, if you were coming in to come on as my full-time accountant for my multimillion dollar corporation.

[00:42:36] Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be like combing through that resume and talking to everybody on it, right? Like there are times and places where those things matter, but again, for most boss businesses and especially for most bosses who are highly intuitive and you can know who can sort of smell bullshit a mile away, whatever it may be.

[00:42:55] I trust myself more so than I do any piece of paper that you can put whatever you want to. [00:43:00]

[00:43:01] Corey Winter: So I flipped it.

[00:43:04] Emily Thompson: Like you could probably just sort of remove 20% at least of most people's resume. But whenever I'm sitting down with you asking you questions is just sort of getting a feel for what's happening.

[00:43:17] That's real. So sometimes I will take resumes, and sometimes they have helpful, helpful information, but for the most part, like that's not really how I do things. I'm more along the lines of, can you follow some basic instructions, which is how I get people to submit applications, especially remotely on at Being Boss.

[00:43:37] And number two, I just, I got to like you and I will tell you my success rate is no obvious you 10 years later, Corey, I think that process worked out quite well. Don't you? Right? I will say in my experience, I feel like I end up keeping on maybe two thirds of the people that I like two thirds are good ones, two thirds.

[00:44:08] Corey Winter: What

[00:44:08] do you mean, by keeping on like past a certain time, like obviously they worked for you at some points, like how

[00:44:14] Emily Thompson: let's say six months.

[00:44:16] Let's say six months and usually like, it's, doesn't even take six months. Right. I usually know pretty soon. And then I start like energetically cord cutting immediately, and then things just unravel as needed.

[00:44:28] Corey Winter: That's going to be a quote this episode, Lindsay, if you're listening to you're listening to this, make that one of their quotes, because I want that like interject cord cutting.

[00:44:38] Emily Thompson: Yeah, I do. I've done that many times, y'all and it works every single time. I need to like, let go of an employee or like end a relationship with a contractor for whatever reason, a good energetic cord cutting. And then there's usually an email is like, you know what? I feel like this isn't the right fit.

[00:44:53] And I'm like, oh, you do well. That's funny. Cause I already cut this one out[00:45:00]

[00:45:00] or I will also like make the move as needed. I'm not just energetically cord cutting and otherwise waiting for everyone to stop being miserable. Okay. So let's talk about this application process, because I think this is one of my favorite tactics for weeding through applications. And that is that the whole initial contact is an application.

[00:45:22] So let's say it's an in-person interview, girl, you better show up on time. Oh my God. I recently had someone come into my mask required shop without a mask. Well, honey, I guess that's when, like when instruction you're not going to, yes. It says mass required. Cool and big old letters. And so like that first interaction, like I'm being very careful to make sure that you are following whatever instructions that I have given you in person or online where it's even easier to be more persnickety about those, because you're also probably going to be getting more applications and you cannot realistically have interviews with everyone.

[00:46:05] So whenever I am, huh?

[00:46:07] Corey Winter: Do you still do trick questions on your application to see if they actually read the instructions?

[00:46:12] Emily Thompson: Absolutely.

[00:46:13] That's what I'm about to talk about. Okay. Yeah. Trick questions. I've also seen people who will like hide like secret codes in like the description of their jobs, just to see if people are, are reading them.

[00:46:25] And that works really well. If you are doing things on big jog boards, because there are people who are, they're just applying to every single job that pops up without reading a thing. And like, and I get it maybe desperate for a job, but like, you got to read, you gotta read things. And so if they're not putting in that secret code or following the instructions, so yeah.

[00:46:48] Trick questions and by trick questions, I mean, like, you know, be sure to send me in your email, what your favorite color is. Like, did you read the job description and read the instructions? For how to submit your application because someone who cannot like thoroughly read the first interaction with you, right.

[00:47:07] Which is your job description and follow the clear instructions is probably not going to make the best employee. In most cases. I think that there, there can be some asterisks around that, but like are there, and yes, I think there are, I think there are some like neurodiversity things that should be taken into consideration with some of these things.

[00:47:30] But overall I do give some very clear instructions for how it is that I want you to submit your application. And it usually includes things like title, your email, something specific. So like, if you, like, if you send me an email and it says something totally different, the subject line, I know that you did not read this incredibly explicit instruction to title your email something specific.

[00:47:52] Or tell me about yourself in three sentences and they send me 18 paragraph. Right. Like you didn't fall. Like I need you to be able to [00:48:00] communicate concisely that is, if we're working remote, you better be able to communicate concisely. And then I also like the tactic, the tactic of asking them and their favorite thing about something related to your industry to help you sort of further filter, right.

[00:48:16] To see if there is like an alignment of how it is that they view or the experience they have in, in the industry. You know, if they were, if they answered that question, like very sort of high level, but you need someone like a really deep in the industry that can help you realize they may not be as deep as you thought they were.

[00:48:32] And not necessarily that, that one is one, that's going to keep them from getting, an interview. But like, if you can't follow some of those very basic submission instructions, that's a really easy way to do the first filter of ideal candidates. Now, can we talk about the interview.

[00:48:50] Corey Winter: Yes. So for Being Boss, how do you do interviews?

[00:48:54] Let's do it. Let's do let's use, we'll do both because I'm sure that interview process a little bit different. So how do you do interviews for Being Boss?

[00:49:01] Emily Thompson: You know, what's funny is I feel like they're the same and they're not terribly different from what they were 10 years ago. I feel like I've definitely gotten better.

[00:49:09] Like I know some better questions to ask and I've gotten a better read on people and those sorts of things. But I will say for me, application is just to like, learn who you are, like have sort of an initial contact and sort of initial review of how it is that you read and read and follow instructions and otherwise communicate.

[00:49:33] Right. It's like application process for me, the first interview is just like, are we going to vibe.

[00:49:39] Corey Winter: Okay, well, before we get to that, let's talk logistics. So they've submitted their application. You've seen the application. You're like, okay, they didn't stop this out. Let's take this to the next step. How do you actually like go about reaching out and scheduling a time?

[00:49:52] Emily Thompson: Well, apparently by phone at Almanac and it will say actually had my assistant do that. The last round I had someone else schedule all the interviews. And then I showed up for the interviews. At Being Boss, I've always done all of that myself though, that could change in the future as well. So I just contact them.

[00:50:10] However it is that I know how to contact them and schedule an interview. And it's usually 15, 30 minutes for the first one. And I think. In all roles, well, I don't think in all roles, I have always done at least two interviews. Like, I don't care if you are coming on to, I don't know, to do something that may be, you know, isn't the most high level, high level job.

[00:50:33] Like there's like one interview of like, are we going to vibe and second interview of really diving into like what it is that we're going to do together. So I schedule all of those. I show up to them. I do them sometimes David's there. Sometimes other members of the team are there for one or more of them.

[00:50:50] But I'm doing it. And I, it really is just sort of a vibe check. I asked them what's important to them some or I ask them the questions that are important to me. So again, reiterating, can you lift 50 pounds? Do you know how to use the Adobe suite? Like some of those, like sort of initial those initial questions, just to make sure that what they put in their application is actually what they're gonna like.

[00:51:16] Do you remember what you put on that? Cause it true or not, and then going into some good questions and this is where search engines come really handy y'all. You can Google good interview questions and pull from them. Some of my favorite ones is asking like really quickly, are you a leader, doer, thinker?

[00:51:37] Which like is really good for sort of different roles. Just to make sure that they are really going to fit wherever you're trying to put them in your organization. One of my very favorite, favorite favorite ones, especially for a vibe check is asking them to explain their, their favorite job and then their worst job or their favorite vacation, and then their worst vacation, because their answers can tell you, like, just generally what kind of person they are.

[00:52:03] An example of this is a interviewed someone once upon a time that did not end up coming to work for me for a myriad of reasons. And one of them is I asked this question, what is your favorite thing about this job that she had? No, I think I asked her first, like, what was her least favorite thing about the job she had?

[00:52:23] And she went on about her manager. Ooh, I heard some dirt. I was like, okay, this is probably not a good sign. And then I asked her what her favorite thing was about her job and you know what she's. Nothing. Oh, I know. And I was like, Ooh, wait, what was the job? It was, Almanac sales associate.

[00:52:45] Corey Winter: No, like what was the previous job?

[00:52:47] Emily Thompson: Oh, she worked at, she worked at a pizza place, which like, could say pizza.

[00:52:55] Corey Winter: All day.

[00:52:56] Emily Thompson: Right? Like I get it. Like some jobs are really, really awful, but in an interview you better take a second and find something that you can like put a silver lining on what may be a really awful job situation. If you say nothing, I'm going to assume that you are an incredibly negative person and that I don't need you in my organization.

[00:53:19] So I feel like that one is one of my favorites for really just sort of testing the water. And you see what's important to you. What are your motivators? What do you not like? Those sorts of things. So that's one of my favorite. And then I always just dive into some personality things and really working style.

[00:53:36] Do you like, do you like to do the same things every day or do you like variety, from day to day in terms of the work that you do, that one's a really huge one for depending, like, depending on what the role is. I don't usually ask much about education though. I do usually ask about aspirations. So what do you want to be when you grow up?

[00:53:55] Like, or what is it that you love most about the things that you're doing now? And I really just dive into those things follow up. Interview is usually more of like, what are you want to bring into this company? If you could change one? Like, and I usually send them a little bit of homework, like in the second interview, I want you to review our website and let us know, something that we could do more clearly.

[00:54:20] You know, if they're coming in for like a marketing position or something like that, just to sort of get their take on the company, what is it they can do within it? How does it they're going to help and what it is that they need from me? The first one is a vibe check. And I will say to you, one of my favorite things is to not be afraid to give them a task that you pay them for.

[00:54:39] And this could be that contractor situation where maybe it's just like a one-time thing. I did this with you back in the day. If you'll remember, I had two candidates for the job that you were filling, you and another, another Corey actually. And, I gave you both, I told you both to come in for, you know, two-ish hours, I'd be paying you X rate.

[00:55:01] I can't remember what it was. It was 10 years ago, to come in and do something, do some development things for me. And there were legit client things. Like I had a backlog of stuff that needed to be done. So I packaged you both up these tasks to do and let you do your job and just see what happened.

[00:55:20] Corey Winter: Yeah, I came in the trial day.

[00:55:21] I think we had, I think it was either three hours or five hours blocked off. And I remember finishing it all the work you had laid out for me in two hours, but you were paying me for my time. It's like, it was like done in two hours. Got paid for that two hours. When I could've just sat there for like three hours getting paid.

[00:55:38] I wasn't overachiever.

[00:55:40] Emily Thompson: Right. And there's a lot to be said about how fast you get it done. The kinds of questions that you asked, the reason why you got the job and not the other Corey. And I think I've told you this, is that he asked me how to code something in bold. And I remember thinking, oh my God, if you don't just know how to bold something in my mind.

[00:55:59] [00:56:00] I know. Right. I knew that when I was 12. So like someone who was applying for a job where the role included some at least basic, you know, front end website development stuff. And you're asking me how to bold something. This is not going to be a good fit. I'm going to have to teach you a whole lot. A whole lot.

[00:56:20] So, doing trials and with multiple people to sort of see what the test is. And I do know that, especially in the tech industry, this is a big thing. I have a friend who recent or within the past two or three years got hired for, probably a Wellesh known tech company, as a developer and the tests that he had to do to like make it to the second interview, took him,

[00:56:48] I think he had 72 hours to finish it and was massive. It was this massive, incredibly difficult sort of coding problem that he had to do. And so he spent three days busting his ass to get this thing done on time, on time and hand it in. So tasks are something that are pretty commonly used and it does, it doesn't even have to be development.

[00:57:13] I've done it with all kinds of roles.

[00:57:16] Corey Winter: Yeah, no. After, after I think it was. Eh, like three years ago, it was like, I was in between like, like Being Boss to scale down. So I wasn't sure if my next step was going to be, and I was applying for like the corporate programmer jobs and like, just to get an interview, there was homework for coding, the entire program.

[00:57:37] Yeah. Like just to get in the door, you have to like code this entire program from scratch.

[00:57:41] Emily Thompson: Yeah. I love that. I've definitely, I've definitely done social media things where I got people to do design. We have some sample graphics, or I guess that was graphic designer roles where I've had people design me up some, some sample graphics.

[00:57:54] I think I might even with my sales associate, jobs that almanacs are doing like a test day in the store with me. Right. Of just like, come in, let's do this together. Let's sort of see how you are with customers and like how it is that you interact with me and stuff. I think, I mean, that is a way of hiring people that especially boss businesses should adopt because you cannot afford to hire on the wrong person.

[00:58:18] At least not for very long, you can like, let them go at some point or whatever, especially depending on what your, what your state's rules are. But you also, like, I don't want to hire the wrong person and for like personal business reasons, but also for the purpose of like I'm giving someone hope, right.

[00:58:35] That they are going to have their livelihood, their livelihood provided for, and then just be like, oh, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have hired you. Eww, I really want to make sure it's a right fit.

[00:58:46] Corey Winter: In most cases you're not really hiring for necessarily skillset or experience. You're just hiring for personality and chemistry.

[00:58:55] Emily Thompson: For sure. Look, I can teach anybody anything more or less. Right. And as long as you, so as long as you have like the personality capabilities to learn something to, you know, help me do the basics of the role. And then I can like get you up to speed on all the other things. I'm down for that. I've done it many times.

[00:59:15] And honestly, those are usually the kinds of people who stay around the longest because we become invested in each other in a way that in a way that I love, like I really get to know my employees and, and all the things I've actually made a couple of hires during the pandemic locally that I haven't been able to have like the in-person experience with.

[00:59:36] And I feel the difference. I feel, and even, you know, like even my online people, my remote team, like we have a relationship that, that has really stemmed from an a mutual investment. I think in each other that I think really pays off. So, yes. I, I will hire a person that I like because I'm going to be spending a lot of time with them and they're going to become an important sort of ingredient in my team.

[01:00:05] So again, I will, I will hire someone that has a really killer personality and a hardcore will to learn over someone who knows the ins and outs of Adobe suite.

[01:00:16] Corey Winter: All right. So we need to start wrapping up. So there are any final thoughts about the interview process before we wrap up with onboarding?

[01:00:23] Emily Thompson: I don't think so.

[01:00:23] Not at the moment. Okay. Let's skip that. Unless you see something in my notes there that I missed.

[01:00:29] Corey Winter: Nah, it's all covered. Well, I mean, kind of the, follow-up just like you've chosen your person, you you've, this is kind of onboarding, so this is a good segue. So you've, you've chosen your person. How do you, how do you let them know and how do you, how do you get them in?

[01:00:43] Emily Thompson: So you do need to do sort of an official offer letter. And again, Google it. Google an offer letter.

[01:00:51] Corey Winter: You didn't can give me an offer letter.

[01:00:53] Emily Thompson: No, and I didn't know what the fuck I was doing back then. Are you kidding me? That was 10 years ago. You were like, you were the first real hire. I think I ever

[01:01:01] made.

[01:01:01] Corey Winter: I think like a week went by after the trial day and I hadn't heard from you.

[01:01:06] So I was like, okay. I should probably reach out to her. He might reach out to you. I'm just like, Hey, I haven't heard anything. Just wondering, you know, if, if we're going to move forward, you're like, oh yeah, you got the job.

[01:01:17] Emily Thompson: I forgot.

[01:01:18] I was busy. Yeah. I love that. You remember so much about this because I do not.

[01:01:24] I do not. Right. And I'll tell you too, I've gotten jobs in the past from following up and I've shared this. Maybe I haven't shared this before. I will often like, if I'm, if I'm looking for a contractor. If I have had an interview with, you know, an agency or even just like a solo preneur about, you know, coming on to do some copywriting or some designing, or like help me with a thing, whatever it may be.

[01:01:48] Sometimes I will wait to give them a confirmation just to see if they follow up with me. And when it comes to contractors in particular, [01:02:00] do you have a up sequence in place? Like is your sales processes to the point where you will follow up with me in three days to see if I have any questions, if you do you have your shit a little more together, or at least you're really great at sales, which doesn't necessarily mean that you're great at what you do, right?

[01:02:17] But at least I know that you have some business processes in place. If you're not following up with me either, you don't want to work with me or you don't have the processes in place that allow your business to run efficiently, which will you be able to deliver to me? I don't know. So like, that is a tactic for me, with working with contractors is like, if we guys, if we have a discovery call, follow up with me, because that for me is like a test I'm testing you to see if you will follow up with me first.

[01:02:47] And then when it comes to hiring employees, similarly, I've gotten jobs from, I remember in college, hounding the hell out of some places that I interviewed with and got jobs every time, because there's an interest there. So if you follow up, you get an extra point. But there you should send offer letters.

[01:03:06] That is something I have learned along the way, that clearly states sort of the terms of employment. So when they are saying yes, they know what they are saying yes to. And then I think there is this, this big element of trusting your gut release all should, right? You should not do anything as of trust your gut.

[01:03:25] And it's funny in my notes here, I feel like I was in a mood whenever I wrote this, but I said in my experience, half of hires pan out, I would increase that to like two thirds. I think two thirds, not everyone is going to work out.

[01:03:41] Corey Winter: That'd be no, that'd be increased. You're saying increase.

[01:03:46] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Two thirds do pan out.

[01:03:47] Two thirds do pan out. I've even been known to hire two people.

[01:03:52] Corey Winter: Okay. Because looking for one, you hired two instead.

[01:03:55] Emily Thompson: Yeah. Because usually one will realize that they are not up to it or they like whatever. And it always kind of works out. I don't always do that, but there have been times in the past where I've sort of been between two people and, hired both.

[01:04:09] And only with the understanding, obviously that I can take care of both. Right. And in every single one of those situations, one of them doesn't work out for one reason or the other, right. Someone moves away or someone sort of life situation changes or legitimately they're just not right for the position that we all thought they were going to be great for or whatever it may be.

[01:04:35] So also there's this knowing that part of hiring is that not everyone is always going to work out. And I would say to you, don't be afraid to take a chance on someone. Again, I don't really look at resumes. Right. I am taking a chance on almost everyone that I hire. There have even been people who did not meet qualifications, but like I just felt it was right.

[01:04:56] And they've panned out really great. There are people on the team now where this has sort of been the case on both teams, where, sometimes I have to take a chance on people because it feels right. And those are usually the ones that work out the best. I find not always, but in my experience. So that's how I, that's how I make my picks.

[01:05:18] It's not science, it's mostly gut, but also it's sort of a mix of things. And then comes having an employee, which is a whole other three parts series to come.

[01:05:30] Corey Winter: I know what to actually

[01:05:31] Emily Thompson: look right, because then comes onboarding. And once you're onboarding, there's like a whole set of things that have to happen.

[01:05:37] You need to know who to get their social security number. Right. And like proof of residence do you have to get, I don't even know David does this part, David, and I don't know what we do.

[01:05:50] Corey Winter: We actually have a part three. This is where we bring in David to talk about the onboarding part of this.

[01:05:55] Emily Thompson: Yeah, I actually, I think, you know, I think we should do like a whole other little series that is onboarding.

[01:06:00] So this is a two-part hiring series done. Okay. You've hired. Congratulations boss. You have an employee. Your business can grow now. It's so exciting later, there's going to be another probably multi-part series on onboarding because onboarding is where you make it work or not. You can hire the perfect person, but if your onboarding blows, they're not going to be the perfect person.

[01:06:25] You could have someone that may not be the perfect person, but if you're onboarding your training, you're like onboarding them into your company is on point. They could end up being the shining star of your organization. So, you know, hiring is just like step number one, onboarding is step number two through eight and really make the hiring process worth it.

[01:06:47] Corey Winter: Okay.

[01:06:48] Well, we are over time. So do you have any final thoughts before we say, oh, do you to this conversation?

[01:06:55] Emily Thompson: Okay. Yes, I think I do. And mostly do it hire, hire all too often, literally in the community, almost every single Monday meetup that I'm in there, someone is talking about their first hire. They've realized they need to hire it's time to hire.

[01:07:13] Right. And we're all going, okay. Like do it, here are the steps, make a job description, you know, post it, filter. In our view, trust your gut, all of these things. And bosses always sit on it. And in the first part of this, this series, this little two-parter, I mentioned that hiring, making your first hire in particular is likened to making the jump into going full-time into your business, right?

[01:07:39] Like that, like that eww feeling that just engulfs your entire being, because you're doing something big and scary. It happens when you're especially making that first hire. But I also experience it at least a little bit. Every time I make a hire in either of my businesses. But every time a boss just does it, they come back and they're like, oh, I totally should have done that earlier every single time.

[01:08:06] So if you are thinking about making a hire, I sort of laid out how it is that I do it, but also talk to your boss friends, talk to, or like look up what needs to happen in your state, because that is a huge part of it. And otherwise know that that whether you were looking for a VA or someone to manage your social media or someone to do your bookkeeping or someone to come in and manage your business, hiring is a good thing to do in your business.

[01:08:31] It's also how you make a bigger impact with the business that you're building within your community one way or the other. And I love that responsibility for what we do too. So basically boss, just do it if it's time for you to do it.

[01:08:45] Corey Winter: Put the boss back in Boston go be a boss by hiring people. So you can be their boss.

[01:08:50] Emily Thompson: Okay. Yeah, absolutely.

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