How and Who to Hire Your First Employee? Here Are Our 6 Tips
So you’ve been freaking crushing it and are now ready to hire your first team member! Congratulations! But pump the brakes babycakes, because there’s a whole slew of decisions that need to be made before you can even decide who to hire.
Let’s dive into the differences between contractors and employees, hiring internationally, who to hire and who to not hire.
The Key Difference Between Contractors & Employees
When it comes to task delegation and outcomes, there are some major differences between contractors and employees. For starters, contractors fulfill tasks in their expertise because, essentially, that’s what they are. They’ve grown their skills in a specific area of business (the same as you), so that area is their primary focus.
Employees, on the other hand, learn and grow within your company to help you reach outcomes. While they could be focused in a certain area, they aren’t limited to that in the sense that their roles could continue to shift and evolve as you both are uncovering their strengths, weaknesses, and passions and therefore playing into them. We’ve had employees who started out focusing in one area but ended up in an entirely new one after we learned the things they did and didn’t like doing, what they were and weren’t best at, and overall continued to grow their skill set.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
Not only is there a difference in task delegation and outcomes but also in the overall way you treat them. Employees are prioritizing your company, they abide by your office hours and work schedule, they’re solely responsible for the tasks they complete, and they can be hired and fired at will.
Independent contractors are business owners, too, so they’re hiring you just as much as you’re hiring them. They likely have a roster of other clients they’re working with, so the attention isn’t always on your business, plus they have their own office hours and are free to perform tasks whenever they’ve scheduled the time to. Contractors can also hire subcontractors to pick up their slack, and while some will disclose it to you, they don’t necessarily have to as long as they aren’t sharing any sensitive or protected information about your business. There are also contractual obligations in place that outline a notice period if you wish to end the contract, usually 30 days.
Misclassifying independent contractors or holding them to the same standards as you would an employee could mean penalties from the IRS, and they definitely aren’t cheap. As a rule of thumb, if you’re hiring someone for a core function of your business, you should absolutely be hiring an employee, even though it’s a more complicated, time consuming process. On the other hand, if you’re hiring for a specific task, you should be hiring a contractor who is an expert in that particular niche. Just be careful of the expectations you uphold them to.
How to Identify Who to Hire
Before you hire your first employee, ask yourself these questions:
What is my zone of genius?
What is my background?
What do I actually like doing?
What have I failed at?
What goals do I have for my business?
Do I currently have the tools, resources, and manpower to reach them?
You should be identifying the solutions to problems you’re facing within your business (“If there was more focus being placed on my social media strategy, I’d be able to increase my lead gen by XYZ”), and then hiring to fulfill those solutions as they align with your short term and long term goals, the things you simply just don’t like doing, and what will allow you to spend more time within your zone of genius.
To Hire or Not to Hire Internationally?
While the ultimate choice of hiring internationally is totally up to you, there are some aspects that people don’t think about beforehand.
First and foremost if the goal of hiring internationally is to save money and have “cheap labor” you’re going about it all wrong. Not only will this strategy have you burn through contractors just to find the perfect fit, but it’s flat out unethical. Know your budget for the position and pay accordingly.
Secondly, the working hours of an international contractor may vary greatly for the needs of your clients and business. Think about when this person might be engaging on social media or responding to emails. Think about when you’re going to be able to reach them to communicate about projects and tasks. There needs to be some overlap here to be most effective.
Why You Shouldn’t Hire Yourself
It’s not uncommon to want to hire “another you” because you feel like that would allow you to get double the work done in a standard that lives up to your expectations, but that’s just not the case. That “other you” that you want to hire doesn’t have the same stake in your business, so you’re essentially giving them all of the responsibilities of an owner without any of the risk. This leads to entitlement, resentment, and unmet expectations because they’ll never understand what you’re going through as the CEO.
10 times out of 10, there are tasks on your plate that are nowhere near your own zone of genius, so you should be focusing on fulfilling roles based on the questions and goals we outlined above versus just trying to find a replica of yourself.
Understanding a Life-First Business & How that Affects Hiring
If you don’t know anything about Boss Project, creating a life-first business is one thing we’re all about. This can affect hiring because there are questions of what is and isn’t ethical (like having less client-focused hours than your team), what you may feel guilty for (hello, week-long vacations), and overall how to manage a team when you shift to putting life first.
We’ve gotten running a life-first business down to a science, and we’re so excited to be sharing how to reignite your business before burnout defines you during The Freedom Era Virtual Conference on March 29th! Tickets are only $47, and you’ll get to hear from us and other niche experts serving B2B businesses on all things revitalizing your business, increasing client contracts, premium pricing strategies, toxic behaviors in your biz that need to stop, and much more.
Grab your ticket, then send us a DM on Instagram @bossproject to let us know so we can celebrate you!
