Who should I hire first is a question I get asked all the time from people building their business. Successful business owners know that it takes a team and the sooner you start getting people on your team the faster you will grow.
My suggestion typically is to hire home help first. Find someone to clean your house, do your landscaping, buy your groceries, babysit your children, run your errands, etc. In the business I usually suggest hiring an assistant or virtual assistant, a bookkeeper or someone to help with everyday business tasks.
The important thing is to start hiring team. Just hiring out a couple of the things that you do during the course of your week can add up to three or four hours of time per week that can be dedicated to sales and marketing and other revenue producing activities. 3 to 4 hours a week spent on marketing and sales should more than pay for the cost of hiring help. For instance, lets say you pay $50/hour for someone to run errands for you. I’m sure you could hire someone for less than $50/hour, but I’ll use conservative numbers. You pay someone for 4 hours a week, that’s $200 a week you’re spending to free up 4 hours that you dedicate to marketing and selling. Surely you can make more than $200 focusing on your business for an extra 4 hours every week.
Here’s an exercise to help you determine who to hire first. Get out a piece of paper and make three columns. In the first column write down everything you do in the course of your week. Be as specific as you can. Include the non-business related activities you do, food shopping, cleaning your house, running errands, doing the laundry, etc.
In the second column make the heading “Things I Like to Do”. In the third column make the heading “Things I’m Good At”. Go down and place a checkmark next to all the things you like to do and all the things that you’re good at. The items with no checkmarks are the things you hire out first. Typically the things you don’t like to do and the things you’re not good at are some of the more menial tasks that can be hired out inexpensively.
I’ve included a template below.
| List of things I do every day/week/month | Things I Like to Do | Things I’m Good At |
Commit to hiring someone for at least 4 hours a week and dedicate that time to marketing your business. The results will astound you and you’ll be thinking “Why didn’t I do this long ago?”
Download the Who Should I Hire Exercise Template