How Do I Know When to Hire?
b>When Should I Hire an Employee?
Many business owners have that question; when do I know when it is the right time to hire an employee? Do I wait until I can't handle the work and my customers are suffering because of it, or do I hire before I am too busy in order to be able to handle the increase in business that will come later? And how much more work is enough to justify me hiring the employee?
This is a common dilemma for business owners. This is especially true when the employee is the first employee the business owner hires. Going from a business consisting of just them, to having an employee, is a scary step. What if I do not make enough to continue to pay them? What if I don't know how to manage them correctly and things get out of control?
The steps to making this decision can be frustrating and overwhelming.
To start to solve this problem, first look at the situation you are experiencing with an objective viewpoint. What exactly is the situation? If you were to tell someone that you didn't know, what would you tell them? In other words, make sure the assessment of the situation is correct and that you really know what is taking up your time. For example, maybe some of your systems are not adequate for the level of business you have created. This is an entirely different circumstance than having adequate systems and just having more business than you can handle alone.
If you have determined that the situation warrants an employee, your next step is to decide what that employee will be doing to give you more time. Instead of having them do the things you don't want to do, look at the things they can do that will give you more time to do the more critical tasks. Identify the tasks you are now performing and determine which ones are critical for you to do and which ones you can delegate to someone else to do. How do you determine which ones are critical for you to do? Which tasks make you money?
A very common task that business owners perform is their bookkeeping. How much money does a business owner make doing bookkeeping? Zero! Instead, if the business owner used the time to market, sell, make their systems more efficient and effective, or create strategic alliances, they would make more money with that time spent. Ask yourself, how much would I have to sell to pay someone else to prepare my bookkeeping? How much time am I spending now on the bookkeeping? If I spent my time doing more critical tasks, how much further ahead would I be financially? Look at all the tasks you are performing and make the same determination. This exercise will help you to determine what amount of money you are able to pay for an employee.
When you do decide to hire an employee, know exactly what tasks you want them to perform for the first day, the first week, and the first month. Make a schedule of the tasks and what these tasks are going to accomplish for you. To be successful at delegating you will have to take some time to write the tasks down for the employee to have as a roadmap. In other words, if you spend all your time telling the employee what to do and answering questions, one after another, you will not be successful at giving yourself more time to do the critical tasks. Make sure the tasks are written in order to eliminate additional questions from the employee as much as possible. In addition, make sure you have a system in place to monitor whether the tasks you are delegating are being accomplished. The system should be objective and measurable. The system will not be efficient for you if you have to keep asking the employee if they have completed the task. And how do you know they have completed the task...can you just take their word for it? Have a system that can determine the progress of the task independently from the employee.
Hiring an employee can be a big step for most business owners. To make it a success, make sure you assess the situation correctly, determine the tasks you will delegate, have a roadmap for the employee, and have a system in place to monitor the progress of the completion of the tasks delegated.
About the author: Nigel Clayton is a business coach who works with small business entrepreneurs, and helps them regain control of their lives and businesses. To find out how you can regain control of your business visit http://Smart-EBusines.com: