Be Your Own Boss Friday: How To Start Building Your Team

This is part of LinkedIn's new Newsletter Series. To get weekly exclusive CEO interviews, and insights on leadership, the future of work, and employee experience hit the "subscribe" button above.

Every Friday is BYOB (Be Your Own Boss Fridays). I recognize that being an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, business owner, or freelancer is also a part of The Future of Work and there are plenty of readers who fall into that category (myself included!) and many who want to be in that category. So each Friday will be devoted to that audience but the things I share should also be applicable to those with more traditional employment options as well.

As your business grows you are going to have to start building a team to help you. Having a team is crucial so that you don’t spread yourself too thin, because that is when work quality can suffer. It also isn’t good on your health and wellbeing to try to do everything on your own.

But how do you know when you need help, what tasks you should get help with, and where to go to find people? We are answering all of these questions and more in today’s episode. This is something we both have a lot of experience with as we both have teams of several people around the world. It can be challenging to build and manage a team, but it is necessary as an entrepreneur.

You can watch the video of our full discussion below or just listen to the audio version as a podcast. If you want more content like this you can subscribe to our Youtube channel.

Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

How to know that you actually need help

If you are a brand new entrepreneur, most likely you won’t need help right away. When you first start out usually the work is manageable on your own. It really depends on what stage you are at with your business.

If your business is making money and you are working crazy hours to the point of exhaustion you should consider getting help. If you don’t have any help it is easy to get lost in the day-to-day work and not be able to see the big picture. As an entrepreneur, you need to give yourself time to dream, plan, and explore new things. If you are stuck posting on social media, editing videos, responding to emails, etc… you aren’t going to have time to grow the business.

Don’t just hire people for the sake of hiring them. Make sure you are at a point where you are profitable and you are busy enough to justify help.

How to know what you need help with

It is important to know where all of your time is going. Before you hire people be sure you know where most of your time is going so that you can get help where you need it. Do you spend too much time posting to social media or checking emails or writing content? What could you outsource that could free up your time to do the important things?

Another way to decide what to get help with is to think about the things in your business that you hate doing. Maybe you can’t stand scheduling and keeping track of your calendar. Or maybe you aren’t good at building and maintaining your website. Know what your weaknesses are and what things you don’t like doing and get people to help you with those things.

Where do you go to find help

We have both had really good and really bad experiences hiring people. You do have to be careful about who you hire, especially if they will have access to important information. But we have also learned that sometimes people can have good reviews online, but it doesn’t always accurately reflect the person’s work.

We suggest you start out looking at freelancer sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, or Fiverr. They have a lot of people on those sites that can do design work, administrative work, writing, editing, social media, etc… If you have a job you are looking to fill that is more niche you may need to look at a site specifically for that skill like ContentFly.com or 99Designs. You may even be able to find someone on LinkedIn. Whichever site you use be sure to look for red flags and be sure to vet the freelancer thoroughly. And be upfront with them about what the work will be and what you expect from them.

Blake and I made lots of mistakes during our entrepreneurial journey and learned things the hard way, but you don’t have to. Whether you are considering going off on your own or you already have, this will be a valuable resource for you. Download our PDF on the 7 things you need to master if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

Sometimes referrals from people you already know and trust can be better than hiring someone off of a platform. If you know of any other entrepreneurs who have hired people ask them where they looked to see what they recommend.

What to look for when you hire someone

So now that you’ve figured out that you need help and you’ve decided what tasks you want to outsource, what should you be looking for in a potential hire?

One good trait to be on the lookout for is stability. Do they have a good track record with their past jobs? Have they worked anywhere for a year or more or do they have a string of jobs where they have only been at for 6 months or less? When you talk to them does the person seem stable or chaotic?

Is the timezone they live in going to impact your business? If you are in completely different timezones it may be hard if not impossible to schedule meetings with them or for them to handle your inbox. Depending on your business and the work you want someone to do you may need to make sure they can be on a certain schedule like a 9–5.

It is also important to make sure they have a good work ethic. Do they take feedback well? Do they work on themselves and continue to grow and learn? You want someone who takes ownership in the work they do, they see your business kind of like their own and they are invested in making it better.

You want people who are humble and who can take constructive criticism and feedback well. It’s not fun to work with people who have big egos. And you want people who can take initiative and who are proactive. They don’t just sit back and wait for you to tell them what to do, they take action themselves.

It is also good to hire people who are willing to learn new things. Because as your business grows you may have to increase their workload.

Reviews online are not everything, a freelancer might have great reviews, but they may not be accurate or maybe they are in a different place in their life now. Read the reviews, but also dig a bit deeper. Ask for samples of their work. Can they send you their past designs or content they have written.

Hiring people is not easy, even if you do your homework and vet the person well, there is still a chance it won’t work out for one reason or another. It’s challenging, but it is worth it when you find the right people.

You can hear more of our stories and strategies in this episode of the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast. Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Subscribe to the podcast on:

__________________________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The BYOB Podcast Newsletter to get notified when a new episode comes out (once a week).
2. Listen to episode 39 of the podcast where we talk about these things in much more detail including sharing our personal stories.
3. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin.
4. If you’re interested in sponsoring or have suggestions for the show, you can send us an email at [email protected].