3 Things You Can Do Before You Hire Your Next Freelancer or Employee
You’re a busy business owner with not a lot of time. You might be feeling overwhelmed with all the things you need to do, and client work you have to finish all while making sure you have some time to breathe and are hitting your financial goals. You might have thought once or twice that it’s time for you to hire a freelancer or employee to take some of this workload off your shoulders.
However, hiring isn’t everything it’s made out to be. There are a lot of rules and regulations that you have to figure out and follow. Not to mention, it can be really expensive. We’re not saying you should never hire someone, but we think it’s worth asking yourself a handful of questions before you do!
In this blog, we go over the different levers you can pull before you hire. You might be surprised with the different ways you can get more of your time back and save hiring for another day.
Add a NEW system or software to your framework
If you’re new here, we’ll just tell you now, that we LOVE systems. People often say that systems are an afterthought because it feels overwhelming to set up, they require a lot of upfront work, and also what’s the point? Let me tell you, once you have systems in place, it’ll make your business run so much smoother because all those tedious tasks you’re spending so much time doing, will be done for you.
For example, you can create systems for scheduling appointments, sharing forms (proposals, contracts, questionnaires, and lead capture forms), canned email templates, bookkeeping, tracking financial goals and so much more. So, before you hire someone to take over these tasks, think about where you can apply systems to make these to-dos more automated for you.
Another example we hear from business owners is they feel the need to hire a marketing person asap because they are spending way too much time creating graphics, scheduling and writing content, etc. However, a lot of business owners use the Creative Template Shop to take some of those to-dos off your task list. The Creative Template Shop has things like done-for-you marketing graphics, email templates, proposal templates, sales pages, and more.
Have you identified what the real problem is in your business?
Feeling like you’re out of time and/or not hitting your financial goals is not a great feeling and we get why you are looking for some help. However, have you looked into what the real problem is in your business? For example, if you think your first hire should be a marketer because you need more clients but in reality, you actually don’t have the bandwidth to take on more clients…then getting more clients is not the solution. And the lack of marketing isn’t actually your problem.
The actual problem is that your client experience is lacking (sorry, not sorry!) Just think, with systems and automation in place, you free up more of your time to be in your zone of genius. Your client work will be on fire and you’ll have the headspace to take on more.
Another problem area we see come up a lot too is you might not be charging enough for your services. When you charge enough, you can take on fewer clients, therefore, more time to do what you need to do in your business. We know raising prices can be daunting, that’s why we cover pricing backwards and forward in The Incubator. We get our clients feeling confident about what they need to charge to reach their dreamy income goals.
So, take the time to figure out where the problem really lies in your business and see what solutions you can come up with, and address those before you hire someone!
Have you done the role you want to hire for in your business first?
We know you can’t be an expert in every area of your business so there are some positions this tip doesn’t apply to. But let’s say you want to hire someone to be a salesperson to close client deals. The question you should be asking yourself is have you done those tasks in your business yet? Like do you have a process that you follow already for getting leads, sending out follow-up emails or DMs, what do you say, what has worked for you? This is important because knowing what that process looks like helps you decide who you need to hire and how to train them.
Or understanding this process gives you insight into what areas you can create systems and automate to free up more of your time. Cultivating sales is an important part of your business so if you can free up time in other areas then you can keep sales as a priority on your to-do list.
The Incubator is where business owners come to get unstuck in their business
We know that hiring a contract or employee isn’t the easiest thing. It’s a little overwhelming because there are a lot of details that go into it. In The Incubator we go over all aspects of your business to get you unstuck and free up more of your time. Hiring is a topic we love to talk about because there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to do things. Not to mention there are ethical and unethical parts you need to be aware of too.
If creating a sustainable and profitable business is important to you, then checking out The Incubator needs to be your next step! Have questions? Send us a DM or head straight to our website and apply! P.S. applying is totally free!
