A Millennial's Guide to Hiring
Contributed by Adriana Richardson, Founder of The Lazy Millennial
Building your team is an exciting and often nerve-racking part of every entrepreneur's journey, but having a support team is critical to the growth of your business. Expanding your team isn't just about hiring the right people; there's also a process behind preparing your company for growth.
Check out my 4 steps to help you prepare your business and build your team with success — not stress!
1. Define Your Business’s Standards
The first step in successfully building a team is to define your standards as a business owner. We're not just planning for the "right now," we're defining the standard for how you will conduct your business - the things that ultimately will play a significant role in how sustainable your business model is.
Use these questions to form your standards:
What direction do you see your business going?
What kind of environment are you creating?
What kind of boundaries are you setting in place for clients?
It can be challenging to define your team's standards and implement the necessary steps to achieve them, but it's worth it! It's important to be able to tell potential team members not only about your values, but what standards they will be required to meet in order to uphold those values.
Example: If one of your values is always putting your client's needs first, then the standard to uphold that value may be following a clear onboarding and offboarding process for client satisfaction.
Already know your values and standards? Great! But you need a plan - a process and a system. Let's dive into what this looks like in #2.
2. Create Your Processes and Systems
Millennials are often labeled as “lazy,” but if wanting to automate things for a seamless process is “lazy,” then I’ll accept it.
As an operations manager, processes and systems are part of my everyday life, but when I first started as a Virtual Assistant, creating them didn't come easy. I knew every business should have them, but I wasn't clear on what they were supposed to be.
Processes and Systems - The Translation
Process: The step-by-step actions taken to reach a goal. I.e., a client finds you on Instagram, clicks the link in your bio, fills out the form on your site, books a call. These steps count as one process.
System: All of the things in use to simplify and automate your processes. I.e., An onboarding system - you outline a process for a client journey and add the steps into software to make your process come to life as an automated system.
Important note: The software you use in business is not your system alone. You need a process and strategy to make up a complete system.
As you can see, you'll need to outline and document your processes before you can recruit software and tools to assist your system. Take caution in employing people when you really need a great tool or software that automates your systems. If you're using all appropriate tools and still reaching capacity, then it's time to hire a person.
3. Decide the Type of Hire
Once you've decided you need a person, not a tool, it's time to decide what type of person you hire - do you need an employee or a 1099 contractor?
Don't know the difference? Read this article by the IRS about the differences between contractors and employees.
Once you've decided what type of person to hire, you can start identifying what you need your new team member to do and how you will manage them. Be careful in how you manage independent contractors - contractors are often treated as employees instead of business owners, and while it's up to the contractor to say something, you should do your part in understanding the difference.
Tips for hiring and onboarding new team members:
Identify your business's standards
Know your company's culture (What is my business for? What do we stand for?)
Have the necessary software and tools in place
Establish payment schedules (while contractors send an invoice, you can talk to them about having it sent during a particular period to keep your finances in order)
Set a standard starting wage/budget
Have Standard Operating Procedures set (learn more about SOPs in #4)
4. Document Your Processes and Systems
Documenting your business’s processes and systems is critical when it comes to scaling and selling, and it's exactly what SOPs accomplish, but they're often forgotten about.
Have you ever heard someone say, "You won't know you need it until you need it?" That's what SOPs are to businesses - critical steps that you forget the importance of until you find yourself in a jam.
Ideally, you will have a video that shows how you perform tasks, a document of what you want to be done, or a brief overview of what to do.
For more information, watch this short video on SOPs.
Before you can begin hiring, you have to prepare your business for growth, just like you have to create a space before bringing others into it. Hiring can be a stressful process, I know - that's why it's important to make things as simple as possible on your end through preparation, so there's less room for error and more room to grow.
Keep In Touch
If you liked what you read, make sure to keep in touch with The Lazy Millennial on Facebook and Instagram
Join the Facebook group Business the Lazy Way
Follow us on IG @the_lazymillennial
About Adriana
Adriana Richardson is the owner of the Management and Consulting Company, The Lazy Millennial. Once a Virtual Assistant turned Online Operations Manager, Adriana is no stranger to helping small businesses set up their internal processes and systems for sustainable growth. Adriana came up with “The Lazy Millennial” because she noticed no matter how much, or who, small businesses hired, there always seemed to be a disconnect leading to frustration, micromanagement and other negative associations. She wanted to show Service Providers that they can make better decisions when it came to hiring and and running their business all through strong operational foundations which she does today. “ You serve no one being overwhelmed. Set your boundaries early”
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