As your small business is growing, are you having trouble finding time to stay on top of all of your day-to-day duties? Is it a struggle to handle all of your customers’ inquiries, daily sales outreach calls and emails, marketing initiatives, and administrative duties? Do you feel like you can use some help? If so, it’s time to take the next big step in your entrepreneurial journey: hiring a new employee to help you continually grow your enterprise.
Yes, it’s always a HUGE milestone when your small business grows to the point where you need to hire someone to take over some of your duties. However, it is important to be strategic and careful when you approach this undertaking. You don’t want to accidentally hire someone who can potentially hurt your business’s overall progression! Here is what to keep in mind.
Red Flags to Look Out for During the Interview
Yes, an applicant’s experience may look fantastic in their resume, but it is crucial to pay careful attention to their actions during the interview. A major red flag is an applicant who can’t vocalize exactly why they want to be a part of your company or why they want to be in the position they are interviewing for. If they say generic answers like “it just seems like a cool business to work at” and don’t expand on why or touch on your company’s mission, then it shows that they are just trying to get any job available. These applicants are not truly passionate about being a part of what your business is striving to achieve.
Also, it is a red flag if an applicant shows signs of narcissism during the interview. One way to catch narcissists during the interview is to analyze their response when asked why they want the job. If they seem overly boastful about their accolades or call themselves the “best” for such and such reason, then you may be dealing with a narcissist. Hiring someone with a narcissistic personality can be detrimental to any business’s culture that places great value on teamwork and supporting each other’s ideas.
Traits of a Great Hire
You will know you found the best person for the job when the applicant shows genuine excitement over all of the opportunities they will have with your company. This will show you that they will likely want to grow with the business and help it progress. On top of this, look for someone headstrong, self-driven, motivated, and passionate about the mission your business is striving to achieve. A person with these qualities will be excited about the projects they tackle and will understand your business vision and want to make it a reality.
How to Know if a Potential Hire will Stay Long with Your Company
You don’t just want to hire someone only to have them leave three months later. All of the time and money you spent on training them in will be wasted! One quality about an employee that will show you they will stay long is if they truly care a lot about your company’s mission and vision. If they ask all kinds of questions about what your company is working to accomplish, what inspired its founding, and your long-term goals, then they are likely to want to stay and grow with your business. For example, at Live Lingua, we know someone will want to stay with us long if they are passionate about bringing people together through learning a language.
Solidifying the Best Applicant’s Interest in Joining Your Company
Once you select the best applicant for the position, discuss the many ways they can grow with the company during the interview. This will pique their interest in becoming a part of your organization, as they will see all of the opportunities they will have for personal growth. In addition, once you choose the best applicant(s) for the job, ensure that the onboarding process is as seamless and efficient as possible. Whether with training videos or immediately designating a mentor for them in your company, you want to help them assimilate into your organization in a stress-free, efficient manner.
To Wrap it All Up
Hiring your first employee for your small business is a huge undertaking, but no need to start stressing out about it! You can find and hire the best person for the job by looking out for major red flags, checking if they are truly passionate about your business’s vision, and by determining if they would stay longer with your company. Also, pique the best applicant’s interest in joining your enterprise by discussing how they can grow with your business and all of the opportunities they will have. Following these tips will help you find the best person for the job.
About the Author:Ray Blakney is the CEO and co-founder of Live Lingua, a renowned online language learning platform. Live Lingua offers a unique and immersive approach to mastering a new language, as it pairs users who want to learn Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and more with their own hand-picked, certified, native-speaking tutor for online teaching sessions. An award-winning Filipino-American entrepreneur, speaker, and podcaster, Ray builds and helps others build 6- and 7-figure businesses on a bootstrap budget using SEO.
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