Growing? Here's How to Hire Your First Team Members.

Hiring team members can be scary as a first-time business owner, and it can be difficult to put your trust and business into someone else’s hands – even if it’s just a small amount to start.

However, to start scaling your business and winning back time to focus on your big-picture goals, it's likely a necessary step. Hiring on new members can essentially open up room for more growth in your business, and I believe that it’s something every creative business owner looks forward to.

Are you in a season of growth and feel ready to bring on help in your business? Here are a few tips I stick to when finding and hiring new team members!

Don’t be scared to start small.

If you're feeling hesitant to bring on help, that's completely normal. It took me months of drafting up job descriptions and chickening out at the last minute before actually asking for help.

When starting the hiring process, I found it to be helpful to start small by outsourcing a select group of tasks to a virtual assistant or intern on a weekly basis until I felt more comfortable handing off bigger work. To this day, my hiring and team management process is still a work in progress, but I continually push myself to hand off more and trust in my team members when I feel stressed.

Listen to your heart and gut.

When you put out a call that you're looking for team members or help in your business, you'll likely see a lot of different people reaching out to you, which is a good thing! Take time to meet with different potential hires and listen to your gut – if someone doesn't feel like a good fit, they likely aren't. Don't rush in making decisions when bringing on a team member, even if you're in desperate need of help. Bringing on the right help is worth the wait.

A few helpful questions to ask yourself when meeting with candidates include: does this person meet the qualifications I desire for this role? Can I imagine myself working with this person every week? How do our communication styles align?

And if you’re also someone like me who has a hard time saying ‘no’ or fears that turning down a potential team member will hurt their feelings, remember this: bringing on help is a big decision and investment, but ultimately, this is a business decision. Continually remind yourself that it’s business – not personal – and more forward accordingly!

Delegate roles, not tasks.

In my business, I like to delegate roles rather than tasks. What I mean by this is having a point person to handle content assistance, admin tasks and more helps keep me organized and clear when understanding what work to hand off to which team members.

Before you start interviewing potential hires, it may be helpful to create a general list of what tasks each role will be in charge of so there are no blurred lines – only clear communication. As Brené Brown famously said, “Clear is kind!”

Were these first-time hiring tips helpful to you? Have you already taken the steps into hiring new members for your team? Let me know in the comments below.