{"id":32760,"date":"2019-07-23T18:06:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=32760"},"modified":"2021-07-05T01:01:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T21:01:20","slug":"think-youre-ready-to-hire-your-first-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/think-youre-ready-to-hire-your-first-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Think You\u2019re Ready To Hire Your First Employee?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Running a one-man shop is stressful. You have to serve as head of sales, support, accounts payable and accounts receivable and more, all at once. And if the business runs solely on you, when you\u2019re not working, you\u2019re not making money. Even taking a sick day can set you back for the month.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>That's why most businesses need employees. While hiring your first employee comes with its challenges, waiting too long to add someone to your payroll can result in spreading yourself too thin.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t have any employees? You\u2019re not alone. There are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/257521\/number-of-small-businesses-in-the-us\/\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"\u201cnoopener\u201d noopener noreferrer\">approximately 25.7 million nonemployer businesses<\/a> in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Not all businesses need employees, but if scaling your business is one of your objectives, hiring your first employee should probably be the next item on your agenda.<\/p>\n<p>If it is, you can better prepare yourself for the hiring process by reviewing the sections below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__left\" style=\"width: 60%;\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__tag\">FREE DOWNLOADABLE ASSETS<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__title\">MSP's Marketing Templates for Selling Backup<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__text\">Struggling to win new clients? Use this set of white-label marketing materials to close more Backup-as-a-Service deals.<\/div>\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\" id=\"hs-cta-07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/07a33996-9cd3-4ec3-892f-54583fd83c9a.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__right\" style=\"width: 40%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/CTA.png\" alt=\"WP icon\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>The Million-Dollar Question: When Should I Hire My First Employee?<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019ve never hired an employee before, contemplating whether you should can be stressful. But it's actually an easy decision to make if you ask yourself the right questions.<\/p>\n<p>The first question is the following: Do I need I need help to keep up with the demand for work? The most obvious indicator it\u2019s time to hire someone is you\u2019re turning down work. Hiring an employee can help you keep up with increasing demand from your clients (which is a good problem to have if you\u2019re able to deliver your services effectively and efficiently).<\/p>\n<p>You can only work at full capacity for so long, especially if you\u2019re looking to scale your business. Taking on new customers is essential to scaling your business, but to accommodate them, you must be able to provide the services they\u2019re paying for, even when you\u2019re behind in work.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping up with your workload keeps your customers happy, which in turn puts money in your pocket. If you find yourself sacrificing quality for quantity, it may be time to begin looking for some extra help. Determine where you could use some assistance within your business and go from there.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do you Go About Hiring Your First Employee?<\/h2>\n<p>After deciding that it\u2019s time to hire additional help, the next step is beginning the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/msp-hiring-funnel\/\">MSP hiring process<\/a>, which can be somewhat challenging if you\u2019ve never been through it before as an employer.<\/p>\n<p>First, assess your business for its strengths and weaknesses. The most important thing during this exercise is to determine how hiring someone will help you to provide better value to your customers. Think about it like this: Where could you use some additional help within your business?<\/p>\n<p>For example, would hiring a technician enable you to refocus your efforts on business development? If so, would you need an entry-level employee, or someone with deep technical knowledge and experience? Defining the specifics before seeking help can save you time during the hiring process.<\/p>\n<p>The most important thing to remember is to take your time. There\u2019s no reason to rush through recruiting. Hiring an employee is costly \u2014 and so is terminating one \u2014 so finding the right candidate the first time around should be your utmost goal.<\/p>\n<h2>What to Do When Things Aren\u2019t Going Well With Your New Hire<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, no matter how carefully you plan your first hire, things can sometimes go wrong. Even an experienced interviewer can\u2019t tell with absolute certainty whether a candidate is going to be the right fit for a vacant position, so beating yourself up when a hire doesn\u2019t work out isn\u2019t only pointless but counterproductive.<\/p>\n<p>When you realize the person you hired isn't the right fit for the position you filled \u2014 whether because of a culture clash, a skills issue or something else \u2014 the best thing you can do is handle the situation immediately before it becomes part of a bigger problem (and undoubtedly, it will grow into one if you decide to wait). Keeping someone who\u2019s not the right fit for your business is a drain on your time, money and resources. Delaying the inevitable can \u2014 and probably will \u2014 negatively impact your clients, too.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming an employer is a big step for any business. Ensure you\u2019re ready to hire your first employee by determining whether you need help in the first place. Then, evaluate candidates carefully, and don' be afraid to take your time to find the right person. And if you find out the person you hired isn\u2019t a fit, don\u2019t become distraught. Act swiftly and immediately to protect yourself from additional losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Running a one-man shop is stressful. You have to serve as head of sales, support, accounts payable and accounts receivable and more, all at once. And if the business runs solely on you, when you\u2019re not working, you\u2019re not making money. Even taking a sick day can set you back for the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":32765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[877,884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-articles","category-msp-business-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51473,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32760\/revisions\/51473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}