No matter what anyone tells you, hiring your first employee is the most traumatic growth spurt any business can experience. After the first member of staff joins you, the business is never the same again. However big your enterprise becomes, you won’t double your headcount by hiring one person.
Most people get to the point where they’re running themselves ragged. There’s simply no more time in the day for meeting customer demand and you’re either going to start saying no or make yourself ill.
When life’s that frantic, your inclination is not to be a tough negotiator in those recruitment interviews; you’re more likely to be a pushover. Electrician Chris was a pushover when he simply ran out of hours in the day. He had worked with Jason in the past and agreed to everything he asked for; all he wanted was for someone to help him cope with the demand.
Jason took full advantage, got a new van and a guaranteed weekly take home wage. When Chris eventually did the sums, he realised that Jason was now earning more than he was.
Moral: Take time to do the sums before hiring your first employee. Make sure you can afford it, want to grow and not simply start turning work away and recognise that supervising someone new will take up your time. Hiring help is not a quick fix, more a step up the ladder towards building an organisation.