This minisode is all about hiring—When is the right time to hire someone and what is the right capacity to hire someone? We giving our tips for first hires and our perspective on the question of “If I hire someone, does it make my work less me?”
Emily Thompson 0:05
Welcome to being boss, our minisodes are all about answering your questions. And today's minisode is all about hiring.
Kathleen Shannon 0:13
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Kathleen Shannon 1:13
You guys today we have a question from Amy in Australia. Here is what she said.
Emily Thompson 1:20
Wait, is that real?
Kathleen Shannon 1:22
What?
Emily Thompson 1:23
Like Amy in and I mean not to hate on Amy. But like, you know, sometimes are like, beloved?
Kathleen Shannon 1:29
No, no, no, she did not sign off. Amy in Australia.
Emily Thompson 1:35
Just making sure you weren't you weren't making up some cool alliteration there. But cool. Amy and Australia. Sounds good.
Kathleen Shannon 1:40
Amy in Australia. So Amy says, I absolutely love your podcast. Thank you and feel so lucky to have stumbled upon it. Thank you, Amy, I hope you let us know in iTunes on our reviews there because they really do help. So Amy has a minisode question for us. She says, I'm wondering if you have any pearls of wisdom about the right time to hire someone? Having been a sole trader, which I think that's Australia speak for solopreneur? And in what capacity Do you hire someone? I've had my own communications agency for about two years now. And while no ongoing work is ever guaranteed, I'm yet to have a week of downtime. I've recently had to say no to a few new clients slash projects, because I just don't have any more hours in the day. I'm also juggling a two year old son with more energy than I could ever wish to bottle. I think I'm now at a tipping point, do I keep my workload as is and somewhat limit my earning potential and company growth? Or do I hire someone? And with that increase the risk in case I end up with no clients and no work next month? My next question she says sorry, is if I do expand what type of person should I hire and for what role my clients have hire me because of me. And I've been referred on for more work for that same reason. I do the sales meetings, I do the client management, I manage project plans, I create strategies, I write copy, I manage social networks, I host events, the list goes on. That's what I love about my work, that I can be so deeply embedded in each project slash client, and it keeps things really diverse and interesting. I wouldn't want to change that sound like a control freak? Don't I? Probably because I am you're not alone, Amy, we're all control freaks. Do you have any? Do you have any advice on this little pickle, I can feel that my business is at a turning point. And I don't want to miss any opportunities. But I also don't want to take on a big risk. Thanks again, for all that you do. Amy in Australia, she didn't sign off like that. Just a Oh, boy, do we have a lot to say about this one.
Emily Thompson 3:50
Right. I want you to go first because I know what you're going to say. And I'm going to follow it up.
Kathleen Shannon 3:55
All right. So Amy, you should absolutely hire someone. It sounds like you're at that point. My recommendation is to lean into it a little bit. So I think that a great way to start whenever it comes to hiring someone is to hire an assistant. I think this is the best thing you can do. Whether it's in person, which is great, especially for a first hire to have someone in real life with you is awesome because they can see exactly how you work there is it takes a lot to figure out how to train someone and for me, that's the most overwhelming part of hiring someone is training them. But the more you can get your systems in place, the better you will be able to train someone And better yet hire someone and have them write out the systems for you. And there are lots of things that you'll be able to hand off to this person. You can create canned responses for client inquiries, you can teach them how to manage the social networks. And I'm sure that there is plenty of stuff that doesn't need your personal touch on it in order to run your business that this person To help you with, so that would be like my first hire in any instance would be an assistant. But depending on your specific work, like one of our first hires at Braid creative was actually a junior designer, someone to help us with layouts of our brand new business vision guides, someone who can help implement your different client needs after the brand has been done by me. And then finally, like someone to help them package up the files just to do a little bit of the work that doesn't necessarily need my personal touch on it. Now, the last thing I really want to touch before Emily talks is your clients hiring you Because of you, I get this one big time. And it's the thing that has freaked me out the most about hiring employees and handing off work to someone else. But the truth is, it has your stamp of approval on it. And if you've trained this person, if you have a really strong sense of your brand personality, and you're able to convey that brand personality to employees, they will do just as great of a job as you do. So for example, I used to think I'm used to replying to every single one of my emails. But since handing some of this off to my assistant, Caitlin, she not only replies to a lot of emails I don't have time for and notice me as herself, but she doesn't even better job of helping my potential clients with the needs that they have, or helping our clubhouse members get into the clubhouse. Chris does that. But there are a lot of things that we do that our employees actually do better for us than we can do ourselves. Because we're so scattered and spread thin, I guess not scattered, but spread thin with all of our other duties. So that's kind of my overarching advice is to Yes, hire someone, maybe start off with an assistant. Oh, and the other thing is, you don't have to bring them on full time. Like it could be a contract employee, um, that you're just paying hourly. So okay, I'm going to stop there. And when you go,
Emily Thompson 6:58
perfect, so love all of that. Amen, I have two things that I want to say. One is, the thing that you need to be handing off is the thing that you're currently not doing. So if there's something on your to do list that keeps getting put aside, then that's the thing that you need to find someone to do for you. So for me, at one point in my business, it was bookkeeping, at which point I got someone to do my bookkeeping. And at another point in my business, it was like small client maintenance, because it was the small things that were just sort of lingering, they're not getting done. So I hired Corey to do my, my client, like website maintenance for me. So it was the things on your list that you just aren't doing and you're not doing them because you don't have time for them. And those aren't the things that you really love doing. So having someone come in and paying them to, to do those things for you is where I would start in terms of what you should be handing off. The second thing I want to say is around how to do the actual hiring because I've hired a couple people in my day. And I found I think what is a really good system for hiring in a way that won't kill a solopreneur. Because a lot of times, like hiring the wrong employee can make or can break your business. If you are just a one person show and you don't want coming at someone coming in and ruining the thing that you've built. So what I've found is really is a really great way of hiring someone is to start off as an intern. So this can be someone that you're hiring as an assistant or even someone who may be wanting to get into like the financial part of your business, or maybe even someone that you need on to do your social media, or whatever that may be hiring someone on as like a short term, quote unquote, intern and paying them paying them really well, for three to six months is a really great way to do two things. And one is going to help you really test and see what kind of person they are because again, the wrong person can break a business, it'll get you in there to to see how you guys work together. Also, it will allow you to see what they're really good at. Because a lot of times never hiring someone for a little task like we tend to need help with in our business. They may be wanting to be hired for one thing, but you actually find that they're really great in something else. So it can be a really great way for you to both test and see how they're going to work well in your business without the long term commitment of hiring them on legit. So doing it as a paid intern will do a couple of things. And another thing it will do is it allow you to see how really invested they are in your business because as a solopreneur. I do think that having someone in there who's really going to help you out and be in it just as much as you are maybe not just as much because you are the entrepreneur is really, really important. So that's one thing and then once they have finished their internship period, whatever you set that as raise their rate and either contract them on a contract. You will basis or on a term or hire them as an actual employee, if that's what you want to do. I love doing this trial period. It's how I've hired a couple of people in my business. And it's how I've kept it from hiring a couple of people that would not have been good at my business. And it's how I've really gotten to know that some people who are good in my business was actually going to be good in my business. So those are my two things.
Kathleen Shannon 10:24
I was like, so concise there.
Emily Thompson 10:29
Good.
Kathleen Shannon 10:29
Good job. You sounded like a boss.
Emily Thompson 10:34
I am a boss.
Kathleen Shannon 10:37
Alright, you guys, that's all we've got for you today. Thanks for joining us in our minisode and we will see you next week.
Emily Thompson 10:44
Did you like this episode? Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club. There you can find all of our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our list so that you can get the latest updates from me and Kathleen, do the work. Be boss
