3 Ways to Know You're Ready to Hire Support (and you can afford it!)
Summary: How many hats do you wear as a woman in business?
I bet you think you can do it all. Or maybe you are feeling pressure to wear all the hats and do it all alone.
But there comes a time when you just can't do it all anymore. If you do, you're just going to burn out or fail in your business. Before you get to that point, consider hiring someone who can take care of tasks that you don't like doing and are time wasters for you.
Here are 3 keys that will tell you if now is the right time for you to hire support.
P.S. Hiring support doesn't have to mean giving up control or handing over your business keys to someone else. It just means you'll get time back for you and the things that matter most!
As a woman entrepreneur, do you ever find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of hats you have to wear?
Are you almost paralyzed with the pressure of having to do it all alone?
Let me be the first to tell you that I get it!
On the one hand, wearing all of the hats in your business is normal…at the beginning! On the other, this kind of effort is only sustainable for so long. At some point, you’ll be faced with a very pivotal realization–
You NEED to hire support.
This is a natural part of the business growth process, to which I get the fear-induced response, “Well, I don’t know if I can afford it?”. That is a valid concern. However, I’ve got some tips and tricks to help you navigate these murky waters. Let’s get started!
3 Ways to Know You’re Ready to Hire Support (and can afford it!)
1. You have a strategic plan to grow and scale your business.
About twenty-five percent of the time, a business will have enough money in the bank to cover the cost of hiring, which I will then recommend they do. The other 75% of the time, there is no money sitting in a secret bank account waiting to be used. So instead, we have to make a plan to pay for it.
What I see happen for many women entrepreneurs is that they take on the full responsibility for the person that they plan to hire. The weight of that decision is heavy– leaving a fear of having to afford the cost of that person forever.
The future is uncertain, which validates their cause for concern. However, if a strategic plan is developed ahead of time, it can help build a sense of security and confidence for this long-term investment.
2. You understand the return on investment.
Typically, the first person you add to your team is for an administrative role. This is because administrative tasks need to be taken care of to allow yourself to focus on the elements in your business that move the needle. An administrative hire may not be a revenue generator, but you need to think about what this hire can help you gain. Will it help you:
The answers to these questions need to be considered when you’re making calculations on the return on investment. A return on investment can be in dollars, time, or stress level reduction. Once you gain clarity, the decision to hire or not will swiftly become much more manageable.
3. You understand the potential impact of NOT hiring support.
Personally, I completed the Goldman Sachs “10,000 Small Businesses Program” for my business. I wanted to go through it for myself and see what I could pick up…(there’s always something new to be learned, am I right?).
When I started the program, I already knew that I wasn’t hiring enough support, costing me the capacity to grow. However, when I finished the program, I had a much better understanding of the impact that NOT hiring people would cost me.
Ultimately, I outsourced a vendor and hired an employee. I immediately felt the positive impact, and I could facilitate this incredible growth in my business in a short time. I was able to identify–
…And how did I manage to do it?
I had a plan!
Final Thoughts:
At the end of the day, the question isn’t IF you’ll need to hire someone to help you with your business. The question is WHEN. And using the three key indicators discussed above, you can make an informed, strategic decision as to when exactly that is.
Need more tips to decide if hiring support is the right decision for your business? Grab my "7 Steps To a Rockstar Team" here: www.yourbizrules.com/rockstar