Need a Hand?
Sure, employees would be nice. But what kind and what for?
You're terribly busy. You're mailing the wrong stuff to
the wrong people, and you can't remember where you put your
contract proposals. To say you need help is an understatement; but
before you hire your first employee, make sure you have the basics
down.
"Don't start hiring too soon," says Leonard Homer,
an adjunct professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and founder of
small-business operational-support company Essential Business
Solutions. "Don't do any hiring until you sit down and
figure out your milestones and your staffing plan."
Assess the local employment market, and be sure to check out
PricewaterhouseCoopers' "Salary Survey" and other
salary publications for compensation information as well as hiring
and layoff trends in your industry and community. The Society for
Human Resource Management is another good starting place-the
organization can answer any questions you might have about the
legal and technical issues involved in employing workers for the
first time.
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Even if you need help right away, remember that a full-time
9-to-5er isn't the only route you can take. Explore the
benefits of temporary help, contract workers, freelancers,
part-timers or work-at-home employees.
However you decide to build your staff, abide by Homer's
golden rule: "Have open communication with your employees from
the start. As long as you practice what you preach, it
works."