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Hello, and welcome to the Ask an Integrator Audio Edition, where I break down business strategy into clear, actionable steps. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about hiring. So if you've been wondering what are the best steps to take when you're thinking about bringing on someone, you're in the right place. So let's dive in. One of the questions I get asked the most often is, I think I'm ready to hire help.
What are my next steps? This could be from somebody that is brand new and they truly have never brought on anyone, or it could potentially be from somebody who is a seasoned business owner and has a history of bringing on people that don't quite work out. I think this episode today, this will address all of these questions, no matter what position you are in.
So bringing in help in any capacity can be a game changer, but only if you're truly ready. If you're not ready to bring on a hire and you bring in somebody, the bottom line is it's going to end up costing you money. It's going to cost you the money that you pay the contractor. And it's also going to cost you money in terms of time lost by all of
the issues that go into a bad hire, communication, lots of extra calls and, you know, trying to get the person to do the right thing, all the things. So these tips today, I hope, will let you know if you're ready to bring someone on. And if not, I've got to get these things done before I bring someone on so that I can have the best possible experience and maximize my ROI on my hire.
The first thing kind of encompasses two things. So, but overall, we're going to talk about organizing before you hire. The first way we want to get organized is by creating SOPs. SOPs are standard operating procedures. And I know most people will tell me, and I've had people in the millions of dollars of revenue tell me that they're not there yet. You are there. Everyone needs an SOP. If you started your business yesterday,
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You need an SOP. If you are a seasoned business owner, you need an SOP. All an SOP is is a documented process. So it would just stand to reason, right, that if I bring someone in to do something that I'm doing, you need to have a documented process that shows them how to do what it is that you want them to do. Instead, if you don't, they're going to guess and
From my experience in dealing with lots of entrepreneurs, typically the people that they hire guess wrong. And, you know, I mean, the odds are probably 50-50 that they'll choose the right thing, but that's not odds that you want to take. So how do you create an SOP? It's very, very, very simple. Grab a Google Doc. Google Docs are shareable, so we always want to use Google Docs instead of Microsoft Docs or anything like that. Unless you're a big Microsoft fan, I'm not, so, but I'll always tell you to use a Google Doc.
So we want to grab that Google Doc, and we want to list out what we do for that task. So if I post a certain way on social media, when I upload a story to Instagram, how do I want it done? What are my expectations? What are the things that I do when I'm doing the thing? And that leads us into part two of organization, and that is setting up goals for your new hire. You may be somebody that
doesn't have an SOP for this process because you're hiring in somebody maybe to do something like tech work or something that you don't do, not your zone of genius. So you also need to have a document that outlines the goals that you have for this person. And the more clear, the better. If you're bringing in somebody for landing page design or even email marketing, giving clear examples of what
type of work you desire or what style you desire. This is especially true with things like graphics. We want to make sure that we get set our people up for success by showing them what we would prefer and not making them guess because it's truly I've been in the position of being a designer and trying to guess a style or guess the way that somebody wants something only leads to wasted time. All right. The second thing is a lot simpler.
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And this is tip two, and it is to use a project management tool. I don't know how many people I've talked to that the biggest issue with their hires is they don't know if things are done. And so instead of having to text them or message them or email or however you communicate, it's probably a combination of all the things to try to get ahold of them to see if things are done. Why not just start by using a project management tool?
You can use almost all of them for free and add the tasks that you want them to do into it. Or even you can even have them do it and just approve them. And then as you log in every day to this project management tool, you can see clearly, this was posted. This was done. This email was sent. are, you know, we're working on the thank you page of the funnel that I'm building.
You know, keeping track of projects and project management tools eliminates an enormous amount of communication, confusion. It also gives you, then you'll know immediately when things are done and you can go in and approve, right? If it's that type of a project. So there's just too many benefits not to do it. And I truly believe it'll save you money to use something like this. My personal preference is Asana. I love Asana for project management.
and you can start off with it for free. But there are plenty of other tools. So if you prefer another one, it doesn't matter, just use it. The last tip that I have is to start small and hire smart. Those are two different things, but I wanted to work them in here because it's important that we don't jump off the deep end with somebody, so to speak, right? So a lot of contractors are going to approach you and let you know that, you know,
Hey, I have this 40 hour package or all of these things, or I have all of these different things. You need to be in the driver's seat of this as the business owner. You can always set your budget expectations and you can always say, I prefer to work on a trial basis and get started with maybe a test project or buy their smallest package of hours. If they don't have one, ask if they would do that, right? So that you can test the waters because
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The reality is you may not work with somebody in a way that's effective. You may not enjoy it. It may be a bad fit, communication style, all of the things, right? And so you don't want to be married to someone, so to speak, when you start a project with them. So a trial project that is paid or a small package of hours are what I always recommend to get started. And then with that,
If it's not a fit, this leads to the higher smart part. We let them go. It's not personal. It's business. If it's not a fit, it's like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It's not going to work. Right. So just let it go. Move on. There are plenty of other people for both you and the contractor that you brought on. Letting people stay with you for too long is so difficult.
It's such a challenging situation to then let them go after you've been hanging on to something that's not working for a long time. Always let them go and you will find somebody that serves you better. I'm going to give you a bonus tip today. And my last tip is just that an implementer is not a strategist, not necessarily. So what I mean by that is a lot of people that I work with
think that a virtual assistant should also be their strategist or that somebody who calls themselves a social media manager should be up to date on their social media strategy. It just isn't always the case. If you are looking for strategy, I highly recommend that you hire someone on with those skills, ask them about their background, all of the above, or hire someone
separate for strategy and then hire someone else to implement it. What I find is that you'll see a lot of web designers, things, know, social media people telling you that they have all these strategies and things like that. And I am not always a fan of that because they're typically using the same strategy over and over for everyone.
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Now they may have a great track record, but I personally believe that all businesses are completely unique. So I would always want you to get strategies from somebody that's going to look at your business from the lens of you being completely unique. So if you need to hire a strategist, make sure you do that separately and know that you're going to pay more for a strategist. So that wraps up today's episode. Just to recap, we want you to get organized with both your SOPs and your goals.
Use a project management tool. Remember, I prefer Asana. If you give that a try, if you are looking for one, start small and hire smart. And my bonus tip, make sure that you realize that an implementer is not a strategist. I am including a hiring checklist to help you streamline this process. So you can either go back to the email and grab that there, or if you're listening to this on a podcast player,
go over to the notes and grab the checklist from there. And if you have more hiring questions, I have developed a small offer called a business audit. That's just $197 where you can ask me any of your questions and get custom feedback in 72 hours. You'll again want to go back to that email to grab that link or get it from your podcast player.
I am so excited to keep doing these episodes with you and I can't wait to see you guys next week.
