When is it Time to Hire Your First Employee? Here Are Some of the Signs

Running your own business all by yourself is something that is entirely possible to do from beginning to end, if that’s how you want to do things. For many, however, the need to grow the business means there will come a point in time when they have to hire their first employee if they want to keep growing. This is quite a milestone and something to be celebrated, although there are some big considerations to think about before you go ahead and make that hire.

Hiring someone too early on in the business can cause cashflow problems and might mean you have to let them go again, causing you, them, and the business a lot of upset. Hiring too late could mean you are set in your ways and aren’t happy to hand over any power, and that can cause frustration and unhappiness too.

So it’s crucial that you look out for the signs that you are ready to hire your first employee and then take action. Here are some of the things to watch out for.

You’re Turning Down Work

If your business has got to the point where it is so busy you are having to turn down work rather than run the risk of not getting it done on time (and thus saving your reputation because late or rushed work could damage it), then it seems clear you are going to need someone to help you. You can start by posting a job for free online and stating clearly what it is you do and what and who you are looking for.

This is a great solution to this problem — which is actually a good one to have. If you have to turn away work, then it shows your business is good and sustainable and that you are growing. Hiring someone before it gets out of control is your best option.

You Know How to Expand

It might be that you are able to cope with the amount of work you have coming in right now, but that you’ve identified something new that could make your business grow even more. These expansion ideas could include opening up in new territories, or perhaps bringing a new product or service to your business that you know your customers are going to want.

If you have done this, especially if you are opening up somewhere entirely new or you don’t have the necessary experience in the new products you want to sell, the time could indeed be right to hire someone to help you out.

You’re Receiving Complaints

No one wants to hear complaints about their business, especially when they are working as hard as they can to ensure that all the jobs are done and the products are sent out. Yet they do sometimes happen. The important thing to remember is that all complaints can be a lesson if you look at them hard enough; they can teach you what needs to change, or how to deal with customers.

Complaints about how long orders are taking to be created and sent out, or about any ‘rush jobs’ you might have done just to complete something in plenty of time, should be a clue that you need to hire someone. Just one more person could make the difference between complaints and happy customers, and of course, the more happy customers you have, the more referrals you will get and the busier you will become. This will ensure there is enough work for your new employee.

You Don’t Have Time For Admin

Whether you enjoy it or not, the admin of a business — answering emails and social media comments, sending out invoices, receiving money, paying bills, picking up the phone to potential new customers — must be done. Without this essential part of the business, you’ll soon start to lose money; you might not even invoice for it, and if you do, chasing it up and inputting the right figures, for example, can quickly be forgotten.

If you’re spending all your time working on the business itself, making your products, selling them, or carrying out a service and you don’t have time to do any of the essential elements of admin, then it’s a sign to look for someone who can. You can hire someone to work in your office and carry out all those tasks that you have had to neglect. Or, if you like them, you can do the office work and someone else can carry out the service or sell the products. The choice is yours when you have an employee to help you.

You Don’t Have the Skills

Although, of course, as a business owner who has been working alone, you certainly need to have a number of different skills: it’s impossible to know how to do everything. So, if you really want to be able to grow the business and show that you are the best in your field, you will need to take a look at the things you aren’t so good at, and, if they are an integral part of the business, you will have to think about hiring someone who does know what they are doing in that area.

Although it may seem like an expense that just isn’t necessary because you can ‘make do’, you can look at this hire as an investment. If you have someone who is an expert, they will work faster, get more done, and leave you to do other things within the business. That means you can make more money and keep your customers happier.

You Never Get A Break

One of the main reasons many people decide to go into business for themselves is that they want to be able to enjoy more free time, have a good work life balance, and to stop getting so overburdened with work. If you are finding that you hardly ever get any time off, even at weekends, and you can’t imagine taking a vacation because you are so busy with your business and the work that it is generating, you should consider hiring your first employee.

Hire them well before you are intending to take a vacation so that you can make sure they are happy and trained for the first few days, or even a couple of weeks that you intend to leave them in charge. That way, you’ll get the break you need and your business won’t suffer as a result.