Great Teams Created Here

When you’ve reached capacity in your daily workload, you know it’s time to start the recruitment process but as a solopreneur this is brand new territory. How can you make sure that the hires you make are going to work out and not leave you stuck with employees that fall far short of the mark?

Here we take a look at what you can do to create a team that ticks every box and helps take your business from a one-person effort to a fully-fledged empire.

Review your own job

What is it that you’re doing that you need to drop and have someone else pick up? What are you concentrating on that takes you away from your core goals? Whether that’s too many admin tasks, managing stock or keeping track of your accounts, the time you spend on them is taking you away from generating sales and leads through your marketing plan.

Once you’ve decided what you need to hand over, it’s time to create a job specification. You may find that one job role isn’t going to cut it and instead you need to hire in several people to make this really work. It’s a big decision, when previously you’ve only ever worked for yourself and can feel a little daunting. After all, being responsible for other staff was not something you’d factored in when you set up on your own.

However, a growing business is a healthy business so this need for extra staff is a good sign in the long run.

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Job specification

Not really much more than a list of tasks that you expect your hire to carry out but make them as specific as possible. Rather than just admin tasks, think what that person will be doing day-to-day. If chasing up and generating invoices is part of that, make it clear. The more specific you are, the more chance you have of finding someone who has those specific skills.

Then you’ll need to think about the kind of person you want in the role. How much experience and education do they need as a minimum to work for you? What soft skills should they bring to the table? You might be looking for someone who can communicate specifically with clients or someone who can organise your other team members, either way make this clear in your online advertisement.

The interviewing process

This can be just as daunting for the interviewer as the interviewee, but don’t let that put you off. You will find your candidates are a little nervous but that’s fine. Your role is not only to find out as much about them as possible but also to see how they perform under pressure.

As a rule of thumb, for every skill you’ve advertised tease out from your candidate an example of a  time when they’ve used that skill and what outcomes it produced. Everything else, including their ability to do the day to day tasks you specified, should be clear in their resume.

Whether you’re a Truck Accident Lawyer or a clothes designer, you need to have staff around you who you gel with. Listen to your instinct when interviewing people. If you find it hard to communicate and connect with one of your interviewees, try and figure out why. Great qualifications don’t necessarily mean they’re the right fit so keep an open mind during the interview process.

Finally, when you’ve made your decision bring your candidate back in to discuss and negotiate salary and any other benefits you might be offering.  Until that contract is signed, the ball is very much in your court so if you do have a change of heart it’s not too late.

Work a six-month probationary period into the contract giving both parties the option of walking away after the period with no hard feelings or complicated legal mechanisms.

Working for yourself means you take on the role of so many other jobs in your organisation as well as the job you originally planned on doing day-to-day.

It’s not easy to create a team but when you do find that winning formula of a hard-working team who you get along well with and who support your goals and objectives, you’ve struck gold.

Take your time in the recruitment process. Getting it wrong can mean a frustrating and fruitless six months spent trying to figure out why it’s not working and what you can do about it. Find your people and your business will go from walking to soaring.

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