Hiring Can Propel Business Growth

Here’s the deal. When Rachel Smith focused on hiring, the revenue for her content business climbed quickly. Another perk for the content entrepreneur? She’s working less.

Rachel’s English is now a team-built and -run content business, helping non-native speakers learn the American accent and mastering English through YouTube videos and her online course.

At the Content Entrepreneur Expo, Rachel shared what you should do when considering moving beyond a solopreneur business.

1. Be brave and overcome your fear and concerns: One CEX attendee said he hasn’t hired because he doesn’t want the pressure of another person relying on him to help them pay their bills. “If I could work an extra 15 hours, I won’t have someone else’s bills on my mind,” he explained.

Another attendee shared they aren’t sure that spending money for someone else’s work will be a good investment. “I don’t know if it’s going to pay off,” she said.

Rachel gets that. But, she says, if she hadn’t made the decision to hire, she wouldn’t be working part time on her business and making 10 times more.

2. Know the type of hire: Rachel says hiring someone happens for two reasons – to relieve pressure or to build a team.

Someone hired to relieve pressure doesn’t need to know much about your business. Audio editing is a good example. Rachel can send her files to an audio editor, and that editor doesn’t need to know about Rachel’s English.

However, a team-building hire needs to know about the business. These roles are more directly involved in operations. For example, an administrative assistant needs to know how to address a customer who has a problem. A social media manager needs to know all the steps to publishing posts and how to respond to comments. 

3. Know the first hire is the hardest: “Get over the hump and try it. It is magical because now you’re able to take some of the tasks you’re kinda bored with anyway, and you’re over here thinking about the next big project or not working,” Rachel says.

Once you do it, it’s like, “Wow, who else can I hire?”

Rachel says that before she began hiring, it took everything to just maintain the business, and she could never step away because everyone reported to her. Now, she can execute new ideas to recharge the business’ growth and unplug on vacation for weeks at a time.

Rachel hired an operations manager who now oversees the business. In his role, he handles problems that arise on the team and implements Rachel’s big ideas. Rachel also hired a team of teachers, allowing her to offer premium services, including one-on-one accent evaluations – something she could never do at scale on her own.

4. Make good hires: Rachel says Upwork, friends, and your network are good resources. (Fiverr can work well for small one-time projects.) She’s also a big advocate of hiring internationally to benefit from lower rates.

Your first hires should be contractors if you want to avoid the much more complicated requirements of full-time employees (just make sure their work fits the U.S. Department of Labor’s definition of a contractor so you’re compliant with the law.)

Dedicate time each week for a month to the hiring process. “Don’t think you can just slip this into your regular workflow and get something out of it,” Rachel says.

Publish a very specific job description. And don’t just rely on people who may see the post to apply. Invite people to submit their interest. Rachel says this is even true on sites like Upwork. Search for providers who fit your requirements and make them aware of the posting.

Consider hiring several people for one discrete task and keep the best one. Rachel hired six people to edit six different videos so she could use the product even if she didn’t hire them again. In that process, she learned who was the easiest to communicate with and who did the best work.

5. Put everything in writing: Have a contract with anyone you hire. Though contracts address what happens if the deal goes sour, they’re most important for ensuring both you and your new hire are on the same page about their role, scope of work, etc.

As you make your first hires, document the standard operating procedures so you don’t have to repeat the process every time someone new comes on board. Every so often, ask your team to review it to ensure that’s still the way it’s done.

Also, track the access each team member has to your accounts, from YouTube to Stripe. Set up separate seats/accounts that give access only to what they need to do. When they leave your employ, visit that account access list and cancel their seat or change the passwords.

BONUS THING: Get OK with firing when a contractor isn’t working out. Rachel says she waited two to three years longer than she should have in firing her admin assistant. When you find yourself taking on tasks that the team member should do because you want them done right or on time, that’s a cue that you need to address the issue and be prepared to let them go.

Helpful Resources: 

• How To Hire a Virtual Assistant for Creator Businesses
• Know When To Outsource in Your Creator Business and How To Hire Freelancers

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