Note: The “Hiring for Creativity” series of posts is leading up to the launch of Hiring Gold, the 8-week plan for hiring awesome people. Sign up to be notified when it’s ready here.
Why hire? It’s a common question, especially from solopreneurs. There’s a resistance. You could be perfectly fine on your own or with a virtual assistant or contract administrator. The answer is not simple. It’s perfectly acceptable if hiring is not the right thing for your business. It’s not for everybody.
But taking the leap brings with it all kinds of benefits. If you’re clear on what you’re trying achieve you will reap the rewards of adding people to your team.
Grow
To put it simply, hiring helps you grow your business. It helps you have the time and space to focus on the building blocks–to be innovative and to develop new products and services. Adding people to your team will allow you to reach more customers and focus more deeply on the ones you already have.
Likely you got into this adventure because you wanted to be able to do the things you do best, to concentrate on your great work. And just as likely you got sidetracked by minutiae. It’s easy to be seduced by the freedom of business ownership, only to be surprised by the mundanity of the day-to-day. What if you could return to the excitement of busting out your best work? Adding team members will certainly add to your plate in a way, but it will also free up space to focus on what you do best.
Furthermore, you’ve probably recognized there are things in your business that you’re simply not so good at. Whether it’s finance, operations, sales or something else, there are elements that you thrive at (and love to do) and elements that you consider weaknesses. By hiring you control the balance between your strengths and weaknesses. You can shift around the pressure to get good at everything and focus on the things you do best.
Be Social
Working alone can be a drain. It’s fun to be on your own but it also can be isolating. Adding people to your business adds a sense of community to your decisions. It can help you stay motivated and accountable. Sharing your workload, sharing in the responsibility and working together can heighten the pride and satisfaction of your accomplishments.
One of the biggest benefits of hiring is having other people to bounce ideas off of. Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. Even if you’re in a business group or mastermind to enjoy the camaraderie of business ownership and trade secrets, it’s still useful to brainstorm and problem solve with other people who are in the trenches. If there’s a perspective about your business that you’re missing, employees can help you find it.
Some Great Good
There’s an altruistic element to entrepreneurialism, especially in down economic times. Now’s your chance to reduce the unemployment rate. What if every caring, ambitious, creative small business you know of hired just one person? We’d put a dent in the unemployment number, improve the economy, and above all, help create favorable livelihoods for others. Your business can be used as a mechanism for positive change.
To learn more about Hiring Gold, go here.
