Most businesses start out as one-person operations. And in truth, that’s often all you need to get moving. However, at some point, you’ll likely find that you’re stretching yourself a little too thin and, as a result, your business growth is beginning to suffer.
At that stage, it’s worthwhile looking for additional help. Hiring an employee or outsourcing tasks can provide the additional support you need to take your business to the next level, while at the same time minimizing stress.
In this post, we’ll look at the steps business owners can take when they need some help.
Identify Your Needs
You can’t get the help you need if, well, you don’t know what you need. It’s unlikely that you’re struggling with all aspects of your business. The tasks that you can perform to a high standard can stay on your to-do list. It’s the ones that you can’t do yourself (or at least not at the required standard) are the ones you should be helping seek with. It’s also recommended to think about those time-consuming, repetitive tasks that are taking up time that could be spent doing value-adding tasks.
Outsourcing or Hiring?
There’s more than one to get the help you need. You can go down the traditional hiring route, but you can also consider outsourcing. If you need a lot of help, then you could consider doing both.
There are advantages to both hiring and outsourcing; it all depends on your needs. If you’re looking to build a team and want to retain more control over the work, then hiring will be the way to go. If you just want something off your plate and you don’t mind who does the work, then outsourcing could be the way to go. Even if you begin with outsourcing, you can always consider hiring an employee later on.
Legal Requirements
If you do hire employees, then you’ll need to think about your legal requirements. You’ll have some additional legal obligations when you hire your first employee, and it’ll also likely have an impact on how much tax you pay, too. At the bare minimum, you’ll need to look into filing for an FEIN online and checking that your workplace meets your state’s employment safety requirements. It’s best to do all of these things before you onboard your first employee to ensure your business is fully legal.
Managing Staff
It can take a little bit of time to figure out how to manage employees effectively, especially if you’ve never worked in a management role before. It’s best to start small and just hire one or two employees and see how that goes before adding more employees to your team. There’ll be a little bit of trial and error involved until you settle on a management style that suits you, your employees, and the business as a whole. Once you’ve found your style, it’s best to periodically review how it’s going and make revisions when and where possible, which will ensure your employees bring real value to your business — and you to them, too.
