Aim Higher When You Hire

If you’ve just looked in the mirror and seen the bags under your eyes, you know it’s time to hire some help. The symptoms of working too hard include tiredness, lack of focus, making mistakes, and sacrificing your personal life. When you’ve taken the evening off work for some well-earned sleep, you’ll wake up and realise that you’ve done it. Your startup is successful, and you’ve got more orders than one person can reasonably cope with. Now it’s time to grow.

Don’t limit yourself to finding someone to cope with the menial tasks around the office. Sure, the cleaning needs to be done, and the post needs to be opened. But now your business is busy, you need to keep that momentum going by growing. Start to consider the much bigger picture. Coping is OK, but development requires forward movement. That goes way beyond mailroom logistics and waste management.

Many startups begin with a technical product or online innovation. Your big idea is already selling, but what’s the next one? How can it evolve to something even bigger and even more innovative? Product development is the cornerstone of any disruptive brand these days. You need to tap into what your potential customers want for the next technical innovation. You need to find the best people in the industry to support and guide you toward it.

You’re recruiting for top talent so you may be better served by a technical recruitment agency. Have you been run off your feet with your business over the last few months? Chances are you’ve missed out on networking opportunities to find these people personally. Why recruit? You want these people to serve your business rather than a partner company or affiliate. Your growing business could be just the challenge someone with aspirations of recognition could be looking for.

Can you afford to pay someone right now? The question you should ask yourself is if you can afford not to. You’ve already proven your abilities as a business manager and as an innovator in your industry. This is attractive to potential employees, including those that are worth a good salary. Offer a good package, and the best people will come to you. If they’re worth the money, they’ll be sure to earn the business more than the salary value in no time.

The most important thing you can do at this stage is to step back and review your business plan. You might start with an updated SWOT analysis just to check in with market movements and developments. Customer feedback will certainly provide you with ideas for developing your current product. What will make it better? Is there a market for a budget version or a luxury version of it? When you know the direction you want to take your business, you’ll know exactly who the best person is to help you achieve that.

Don’t feel intimidated by hiring people you think are more experienced or better educated than you. You’re the one in the boss’ chair today. Well done you.