You’re a sole proprietor and business is booming. In fact, you’re doing so well, you’re thinking you might need another pair of hands to help you out. Making that first hire for your small business is a big decision. When is the right time, and the best first steps to take? Consider these points:
Look for tell-tale signs
If there just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to get all your work done and you simply have more orders than you can fulfill, that’s one signal it might be time to hire. Another: when you start to lose customers or receive a lot of complaints about anything from missed orders to poor quality. “If things start to fall through the cracks, it’s a pretty good indication it’s time to bring someone in,” says Ron Finklestein, who heads AKRIS, a small business consulting firm in Akron, Ohio.
Pinpoint which tasks you can assign to someone else
Once you know you need to bring in an employee, you next have to decide just what that person’s job should be. The best tack is to assign tasks you don’t like to do or aren’t good at. For sole proprietors, that tends to be administrative tasks or bookkeeping.
At the same time, be prepared to admit mistakes
Jack Veale, who runs PTCFO, a small business consulting firm in West Hartford, Ct., hired a part-time secretary to take care of administrative and bookkeeping chores, which would free him up to spend more time working with clients and looking for new business.
Author: Anne Field
Copyright 2009 StartupNation, LLC
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