When You’re Ready to Hire Your First Employee

Long days, sleepless nights and endless hours on the phone, computer and in meetings have led you to this big moment – the day when you determine it’s time to hire your first employee. 

The choice to add a headcount to your roster of one is certainly momentous and should come after significant deliberation. Below we’ll talk about what to consider before bringing a new employee onboard and steps you can take to ease the transition for everybody. 

Can you afford to hire an employee?

You should already be intimately familiar with every line item on your P&L, but when hiring a new employee, you need to really consider how supporting an additional person – whether on a part-time or full-time basis – will impact your numbers. 

More than just wages, taxes, benefits, and other employment costs, hiring an employee will impact your finances in other ways too. You may need to rent a larger space, buy new technology and supplies for them to do their job, increase your inventory, among other things. 

The goal, of course, is that by bringing on someone new, you’ll be able to generate more revenue and attain further growth, but it’s imperative that you can support the person now – with your current budget – before extending any kind of offer of employment. And remember, you can always start by hiring a contractor, which allows for much more flexibility and much less commitment relative to hiring a W2 employee.

Do you have enough work for a new employee?

You can afford to hire a new headcount – great, but do you have enough work for them to do? And it can’t just be a hodge-podge of tasks. When you hire an employee, you’re going to hire someone who holds a specific skill set. 

When thinking about the areas where you need the most help, consider how those tasks might logically fit together. Small tasks that don’t align may be better served by contractors. 

Additionally, you may want to put your money into hiring a team member who can help you generate more revenue – be that by retaining existing clients or landing new ones. Hiring an employee whose skills are complementary to yours can be a smart way to round out your business and extend your reach in the market.

Are you truly ready to hand off some of your tasks?

As a solopreneur, you’re used to doing it all. Relinquishing some of that control can be hard. But to help the new employee succeed in their job, you also have to be ready to let go of parts of the business where you may have tightly held the reins before. 

Give your employees the tools they need to succeed, keep them informed about the strategic direction of the business, but also give them ownership to take on their tasks as they best see fit. You hired them because of their experience and competency. It’s your job to create a trustworthy culture where everyone can succeed.