The WHAT, the WHO, the WHY and the ROI

Don’t you love my rhyming? Told you I was more than a qualified accountant :)

Let me guess, you are busy as f, you need more team members and support, so you can step out from the day-to-day operations and into the role you love the most; the strategy, the ideas, the role of a CEO.

So make sense to hire right??

But you know I’m not just here to tell you to hire. You’ve hopefully read enough of my articles to know we go deep around here… and if you are new here, you are in for a treat!

Ok, so let's dig in...

A big mistake I see a lot of founders of service-providing companies do are the following:

• You hire when it’s too late, it’s a reactive approach to having a sh1t ton of work come in (trust me I get it, I’ve been there) because you never quite have enough cashflow to hire before you are drowning in work. That means you are almost desperate to find new team members…people can sense your fear and therefore often you settle for the best of a bad bunch (no offence to them)
• You hire based on how much you think you can afford in the business. There is a misalignment here. You might want a VA for ￡30 an hour but in reality, the job you are asking them to do is the job of a trained and experienced professional. I certainly don’t work for ￡30 an hour, with my 21 years' experience.
• You are hiring to solve, what I call, a “surface level” problem, when really there is a bigger crack that’s underneath

So how do you hire to make sure it’s most effective?

The What

Pay attention to WHAT is and isn't working in your business. This is where data is your best friend and if you haven’t got any data or you don’t know what to be looking for then this is your WHAT.

Step out of the day-to-day operations, and identify what it is you really need. The default for business owners is always “earning more money”… but that isn’t always the answer. I have clients that earn nearly ￡1m a year with less than 15% profit (￡150k), but I have clients that generate ￡200k and make ￡100k profit.?

If you are generating ￡500k but your profit is less than 35% there is an issue with your pricing structure and no amount of new sales will ever get you out of that.

NB: Some services can generate a loss individually but make a profit elsewhere in your funnel – be in the know!

The Who

Ever heard of the saying square peg round hole? It’s the same here, stop trying to make people do a job that they aren’t right for. An incredible VA, doesn’t mean they are going to be a great COO. An accountant isn’t going to tell you the profit strategy.?

With your existing team, don’t just promote them make sure they are right for the role - discuss it with them, thankfully for us, not everyone wants world domination in their business :) Be clear the role YOU want them to do is actually what they want and where they can excel. Hire the right person for the right position.?

If you have no processes, always hire an expert/specialist first to ensure that you are set up correctly, this will make onboarding team members (that you want to stay) able to hit the ground running much faster

The Why

Ask yourself. Why now? Why this person? Listen, there are times when you just need to get sh1t done and you just need hands helping you. Example: you’ve got a huge project on and someone has just called in sick, and everything is falling to pieces…at this point yes keep your strategic hat on but essentially you are in firefighting mode and that is ok.?

Aside from that scenario (and if they happen all too often, definitely revisit The What section) you’ve got to be clear on why now and why this person?

Are you planning to ramp up growth and this person is going to support you in getting there? If so great, but:

1. make sure that the cash is there to pay for them. You can’t expect any team member to join your business and start covering their salary straight away - these things take time. A new hire is an investment that yields result over time (if you treat them right and they are given the environment to flourish).
2. Do they really have the skill set you need to support you right now? Or are you hiring for their potential? Be clear on which it is.

The ROI

At this point in this article, if you’ve followed through the steps, setting the ROI should be clear. However, let me share with you why an ROI is so important. An ROI (Return On Investment) is not just about how much money this person can save or make you (unless it’s purely that kind of role).

An ROI is essentially a way of which to performance track, how a team member is doing with the overall objective - if you aren’t crystal clear on their fundamental role in their business, this is going to be a challenge for you. It’s as much for them as it is for you and what you can do (which will be INCREDIBLY useful for you and them) is set KPIs.

A KPI is a way of breaking down the overall objective…?here is an example:

You hire someone to do client delivery (￡30k per year), so their time is essentially chargeable. The ROI in your mind is you want them to be earning double what you pay them (￡60k).?

1. How do you know if they are actually doing this? You need a system to be able to understand how much time they are spending on each client.
2. Have you calculated and set their hourly rate correctly? If not then they will its an unachievable objective and they will never yield the ROI you want.
3. Have you given them enough hours to be able to achieve this result?
4. Is the scope of work for the client set out clearly and have you quoted the realistic amount of time? Eg: If I was doing book-keeping it would take me a 3rd of the time to complete a project than it would a junior book-keeper, but if I only charge the client based on my expectations vs realistic expectations, then I am going to lose money because my team member is taking 3 times as long to do the job.

The above points are all KPIs, some you might not want to share with your team members especially the ones regarding how much you charge - this can cause animosity until you’ve built a relationship or they are used to working in that kind of environment (I believe in transparency but I’m straight talking from the outset).

There is so much more I could go into, but you get the picture. Hiring someone isn’t as simple as just “Oh I’m really busy, I need a VA”, that works for a while but then as you start wanting to grow to ￡1m and beyond, there needs to be the intention and clearly thought out plans - which is what I love.?

I’m sure this has given you a lot to think about. If anything has struck a nerve, then you might just be ready to dig a little deeper into what's causing your business (and you) pain, and how I can help provide the relief...not just for now but with you every step of the way. The Profit & Wealth Container... is a unique experience that?you will not regret becoming apart of.

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