Ask John
Ready to Hire Your First Team Member? Knowing When to Take the Leap By John Duever
pyro Polymiadis asked, “How do
Core Values, etc), among many other things.
you hire your first employee?
This can be an incredibly hard conversation for
How do you deal with an initial
some to have with themselves and when one
drop of quality until they get up
realizes the work it takes to build this internal
to speed? What preparations
foundation it can be overwhelming, so you never
should you have in place to try
start to build any of this. One will continue to
and maintain a “standard”? How
plug along by doing a job that pays their bills,
can you relinquish control of the
sometimes, and not actually building a business.
workshop output without wanting
Build a rock-solid foundation for success for
to jump in and do it yourself
your team and company before you attempt
if you see mistakes and not
to build the castle you dream about. No castle
micromanage? I do 99% private
has ever lasted long on a weak foundation.
customer jobs and very little commercial - so the
Secondly, what are you offering to these
standard needs to be high. These are the things
new team members? Ask yourself this question
that have probably kept me from hiring even
“Why would anyone come here to start a career?”
though I’ve needed someone for about 3 years.”
If you cannot answer that question truthfully
Great questions Spyros, I’ll do my best to break these down 1 by 1.
and in detail to the point that someone would hear what you have to say and be willing to
When thinking about hiring your team
leave their current position at their current
member, chances are you should have done
job, then you are not ready to hire anyone.
it a long time ago. Very rarely do business
Just because you need someone doesn’t mean
owners hire their first team member before
you are ready for someone. Build your internal
they need them or even shortly after they need
foundation before you even consider bringing
them as many business owners work too much
on a team member. Early and mid-way through
in their businesses and not enough on their
my 22 years as a business owner I always saw
businesses. So when one does need to bring on
holes in the company bucket and just grabbed
a team member, that new hire is not set up for
a body to plug the hole and they always failed
success with job descriptions, training, culture,
because we did not have a solid foundation. Now
organization (including processes, work orders,
we do and life and business is A LOT better.
SOP’s, training, Company Vision and direction, 14 l WrapFam Unleashed l January 2024
