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You’ve hit a ceiling.
You’ve come to the point in your creative business where you can’t possibly squeeze in more tasks in your day. You can’t possibly make more products unless you stop sleeping. And, this means that you’ve hit a financial ceiling. Without more time to do the work that you’re really good at, you can’t make more money.
Are you this person? If you’re not at this point yet, you’ll hopefully get to this place. The place where your creative business is so rocking that you can’t keep up with demand.
At this point, you might get scared.
You might be scared to let someone work on the business that you’ve poured your heart and soul into. You might be scared to trust someone. You might be scared of changing your routine. You might be scared, because you want to make sure that you can actually afford to hire someone. Or, you just might be scared because this is something new.
I see this happen a lot with consulting clients. They know that they need to delegate some tasks even if that just means hiring a virtual assistant—but they put it off and put it off.
Once you’re ready to make that transition to bring somebody onto your team, you want to make sure that you don’t make the number one mistake that people make when hiring, and that mistake is to rush it.
Don’t rush it.
If you’ve waited until you’re completely overwhelmed to hire someone, it’s easy to make a rushed decision. It’s easy to pick the first person who seems halfway qualified. It’s hard to hold out until you find the right person.
But, here’s the thing. If you pick the right person, you’ll feel good about your decision. You’ll be able to let go of things easier and trust that person. And, that person will pay for herself over and over.
If you pick the wrong person, you’ll make things harder on yourself—not easier. That overwhelm that you already feel will grow stronger and you’ll be even more stressed.
So, you’re probably wondering how to pick the right person.
That depends on a lot of things. First, you need to know what you want that person to do, so start making note of tasks you’d like to delegate to someone else. Even if you’re not at the place to hire someone to join your team, start thinking about the tasks that you would eventually like to hire out. If you want someone to send out your weekly newsletter and do basic website maintenance, then you probably want to hire a virtual assistant. If you want to hire someone to take pictures of your products and upload your products to Etsy, you’ll need to hire someone locally.
Second, let people know that you’re looking to hire someone with a certain set of skills. Announce it on Twitter and Facebook, put up a blog post, and send out an email newsletter. You can also post the job listing on more traditional sites, but you might have more luck with someone who already knows a thing or two about your business or is referred by someone who already knows your business.
Third, narrow down the candidates. You’ll be able to narrow down the applicants through email correspondence. Thank the obvious “no’s” for their interest and move on.
Fourth, interview the person and pay attention to how you feel. This might sound a little silly, but the feeling you get from somebody can make a big difference. If you’ve got it narrowed down to two or three people and they are all qualified, you want to pick the person who made you feel the best and who seemed to fit right in. At this point, if no one gives you a good feeling, start over. Don’t pick someone just to get help.
Fifth, do a trial run. You don’t always have to do this, but it can be really helpful for certain positions. For instance, if you’re hiring a full-time assistant, you want to make sure that you enjoy being around that person. Anybody can put on a show for a 45 minute interview, so don’t stop there. Ask the person to work for you for a day as a trial run—and pay the person for her time. After spending a day together, you’ll have a better understanding if it’s a good match. Don’t feel bad about saying it isn’t going to work out and starting over.
I can’t say it enough. If you get the right person on your team, you’ll feel less stressed and you’ll probably make more money. If you don’t, you’ll have a major headache on your hands.
A friend of mine has a creative business and is at the point that she needs to hire someone. She has finally figured out that with her biz growing the way it is she cannot maintain the growth and stay sane! (It is hard to keep up with wholesale orders and etsy retail orders).
I love the idea of a trial period. When I was in college I was offered a position in a large office. I spent one day there and hated it! It was horrible. Luckily, we had agreed to do a trial run of one day to see how it “fit”; it didn’t.
Hey Erika! Yep, the trial period can work out great for both parties. You don’t want someone working for you who doesn’t really want to do the work! It’s not good for either side.
I am so at this point. I mainly sell at conventions and I booked quite a few for my spring/summer. I thought I would be okay this year even though I’d be working a lot more. Of course I didn’t plan to be doing wholesale orders every month along with needing convention stock every few weeks. And I sell at least two thirds of my stock at every convention. So I’ve been low stocked at my past few shows because my wholesaler has needed orders in between all of my conventions and I haven’t been able to produce enough for myself. And they’d order more from me if I could handle it. /:
I’m working on ways to do things faster but I can only do so much. And then I still get behind on accounting and paperwork and can’t get to things I’ve been needing to do for months (stock the online shop, get small ticket items made for my booths, make new designs I’ve been planning forever, etc).
Some friends, family, and my boyfriend have offered to help. I’m going to try out my boyfriend in a few weeks and see if he can handle a few things. But he works full time and I know he doesn’t realize the headache he’s walking into. And while I appreciate people offering to help, none of them could make the time commitment. And none of that matters when I can’t afford to pay anyone but myself right now.
Oh here’s comes the stress again… back to work. Thanks for the post. Will definitely keep this in mind.
I am so looking forward to that day! Before I get help with my business, though, I want help keeping my house clean.
Whoever heard of a CEO that also takes out the trash and mops the floor! An entrepreneurial CEO, I guess 🙂
Thanks for the pointers. I’ll have to check back when I’m ready to make the leap (for a VA, not a housekeeper)