Building Your Initial Team
If you’ve felt nervous about hiring your first team member(s), or you’ve had troubles in the past that are holding you back, we got you covered. Having a team alongside you can make a huge difference in your work and well-being too. We want you to have the right people that will help get you to the next level and scale successfully.
You’re probably used to carrying your business all alone and it might feel like your “baby”. But if you eventually want to increase your sales and scale, you need help! When your business starts to grow more and more, you will have too many things on your plate and will need to have people who will support you and take off some of your workload so that you can focus on really important things on your to-do list.
We understand that it can be scary to hire team members. But remember that you can start with interns, contractors, or part-time employees. Once you feel more comfortable with having people by your side, you can move up to full-time employees. We don’t recommend starting with full-time employees to begin with, because that can be a stressful monthly cost that you might not be ready for yet. It’s okay to start slow and work up to building the perfect team for you and your business.
In terms of when you should start outsourcing, we encourage you to start looking for candidates earlier than you think you will need them onboarded. This is because we want you to have plenty of time to hire someone who is going to be the best fit for you and your business. When you desperately need someone, you won’t take the necessary time to find someone that’s the right fit or take the time to onboard/ set them up for success. It’s important to leave yourself and your new hire enough time to get in the flow of things — so start early if you’re at the stage where you’ve been considering bringing someone onto your team.
And finally, what should you be outsourcing to your team member(s)? Well, as you scale and grow your business, you need to delegate and delete. Ask yourself — how can I make things easier? Can you delete items on your list that don’t drive the needle in your business? Will doing it benefit you and your business? Take the time to sort through things on your plate and outsource or delete items that won’t grow your business. Think about what you ideally want to start working on and what you’re good at. Focus on these things and for everything else, start to get other people to do it for you.
With hiring, you can take on any approach that you find works best for you. We recommend things like job postings on various sites, asking for resumes or referrals, etc. and then making sure to conduct interviews with your candidates. Lastly, trust your gut when hiring members for your team!
After hiring the team members, onboarding is really important. You should be communicating the goals, culture and values of the company to your hires. Share with them why you hired them and why you’re excited to work with them. You can also let them know what they’re expected to do and what success in their role looks like. What KPIs are they working towards and in charge of? Make sure to have these things very clear from the start so that your team members know how to go forward with their roles within your company. Additionally, keep track of all their tasks and deadlines on one platform. At Recloseted, we use ClickUp to organize our tasks and keep us on track.
Training is also really crucial! If you don’t think you will have enough time to be one-on-one training your hires, you can record yourself doing the tasks and voice over what you’re doing so that you still get to do the task yourself — granted it’ll take you longer but you don’t have to take the time to explain to the new employee(s) and they can reference the video back if they ever forget how to do something.
During the first week that you bring them on board, make sure you make time to touch base with them at least every day for 15 to 30 minutes. You can also have weekly and monthly meetings that are longer. During these meetings, you can discuss important deadlines coming up, expectations, give and receive feedback, etc.
And remember, even great hires can turn into poor hires under bad leadership and management. Make sure you are clear with what you expect them to do and your instructions. Encourage a culture of being able to ask questions if they are unsure about anything.
These are some great leadership books that you can check out:
Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
We hope this was helpful because it can all be intimidating at first, we know that you can do it and we are always cheering you on here at Recloseted. Check out our Business Consulting services and our DM’s are always open so feel free to message us with any questions or support!
