The Solopreneur’s Hiring Playbook

Mou Mukherjee has been a freelance product marketer for about thirteen years. And this year she hit a milestone: hitting an impressive tally of 86,500 dollars in revenue since April 2023, all while flying solo.

Hiring a few people, she thought, would be the next logical step toward accelerating growth. Until she realised it wasn’t.?

After weeks of tedious interviews, Mou found “good” people, giving them paid assignments at their desired rates. She was careful not to negotiate. This would be an incentive for them to put their best foot forward.?

Mou was in for a rude shock.

The quality of their work was subpar to the extent it wasn’t worth her time or attention.?One of the writers produced fantastic copy. But upon closer scrutiny, Mukherjee realised it was 100% plagiarised.

Mou says she never tried hiring again. She is still on the hunt for someone with a hunger for knowledge. But alas, no one meets her expectations.

Is the idea of a ‘dream team’ far-fetched? What must solopreneurs do to hire efficiently in the age of AI, fake resumes and embellished employment histories??

?LET’S DIVE IN ??

#1 | DO I HIRE OR AUTOMATE?

• Before making any major hiring decision, conduct a 72-hour audit. You are just listing down your tasks. Include everything: cooking dinner, buying groceries, watching Netflix, and tasks you perform to run your business.

• The next step involves dividing these tasks into two buckets: ‘Energy Givers’ and the other ‘Energy Drainers’?

• Continue performing the tasks that give you energy. These could be the more high-impact creative aspects of the business. (podcast production or newsletter writing)?

• For the more draining tasks, hire more people or automate.

To decide whether to hire or automate, ask yourself: “Are these tasks teachable or repeatable?”?

Repeatable? Use automation tools like Zapier or Make.?

Example: Updating revenue sheets, onboarding people onto Slack.?

Teachable? Hire the right fit. 

Example: Hiring a Client Success Manager to check in with your clients.?        

#2 | HAVE A TRANSPARENT AI POLICY

Let’s be honest here. You can’t ban anyone from using AI.

Research by MIT showed that job applicants who chose to use AI for cleaning up spelling and grammar and making recommended changes to tone style and word usage on their resumes were 8% more likely to be hired.

But dishonesty; passing off a chatbot’s work as samples in their portfolio is a hard no!

Joel Wolfe, founder and president of HiredSupport, recommends probing potential hires with questions if you sense dishonesty. A candidate who misrepresents may be unable to expand on the details listed in the resume.?

#3 | MAKE THE JOB DESCRIPTION IRRESISTIBLE

Are you tired of meeting uninteresting candidates? It’s probably because your description is filled with cliches. We’re talking uninspiring buzzwords that fail to spark curiosity.?

• “Self-starter” or “team player” are generic phrases that are no longer impactful.
• “Rockstar” or “Ninja”? cheesy and unprofessional.?
• Keep it simple: LinkedIn insights reveal that short job posts (i.e. 1-300 words) tend to perform much better than both medium (301-600 words) and long (601+ words) ones — compelling candidates to apply 8.4% more often than average
• Pay range, always: ?98% of job seekers want to know a position’s salary or hourly pay range before applying.
• Make it personal: Samarth Bansal who heads content at an Indian fitness brand The Whole Truth wrote a JD that fetched him hundreds of applications. Read the whole post here to find out what clicked.

#4 | CREATE SOPs

For each outsourced task, create a detailed standard operating procedure and document it with a Loom video that walks the person through the work. Make sure to do the following:?

• Include the exact steps to complete each task with preferences and brand guidelines.?
• Mention how and when hires can communicate with you and the tools they need to use.?
• Be overly detailed and explain what success looks like for every task.?
• Set up a management system to keep track of all the moving pieces.?

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