Most businesses start with one person. Just two hands handling everything from product making to sales and delivery.
But as your business grows, so do the tasks involved and the time you need to spend to run it. Gone will be the times when you could single-handedly do all the business functions. That’s when you want to hire your first paid help.
Hiring your first employee is a milestone for a small business owner. This will be your first step towards building a team for your business and growing your art business. In this blog you will learn about:
- How to hire your first employee for your art business
- The importance of hiring an employee
- Is it the right time to hire?
- Things to keep in mind
Is it the right time to hire?
Since hiring paid help will need a budget and effort, you need to be sure if you need extra hands to work on your business. As a creative business consultant and a small business coach, I 100% recommend hiring help.
Here are some reasons why you need to consider outsourcing work:
- A certain task is taking more time than it usually takes and affects your time management
- Your skillsets don’t match certain tasks
- You don’t enjoy tasks
- You need more time on your hands and increase productivity
- There are tasks that are not directly related to your clients
- Outsourcing work will scale your business/increase your revenue
- Financial management for small business will become easier
Here are some general business tasks you could outsource:
- Book keeping and accounting
- Social media managing
- Marketing – email, ads, etc.
- Writing content, editing videos
- Managing inventory
How to hire paid help for your business for your art business
Once you decide what task you want to outsource, here’s the next steps you should take:
Step 1: Write a job description
You need to let your candidates know the exact requirements of the job and expectations. Some common things to include apart from the task are how tight the deadlines would be, quantity of required, payment cycle, budget range, location, required qualities, and experience.
Craft a clear job description before you move on to hunt for employees.
Step 2: Finding hires
Where will you find people to work for your art business? The internet offers us a wide range of options to head hunt potential workers. Let’s explore a few that will be suitable for you:
Freelance platforms:
If you have jobs to be done that are not regular ones, hiring a temporary employee on contract would be your best option. So, you can search for potential contract workers on online freelance platforms. Some common platforms as such are Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com. Hiring a freelancer is best if you need expert hands but do not want them on a permanent basis. You can also find marketing consulting teams for small business in these platforms. They will have knowledge and expertise on how to better manage your business.
Personally, I have hired a web developer from Fiverr to help me with my website works. The process is smooth and can be done with ease.
Your social media network
You have access to a wide range of people on your social accounts. Why not use it to hire help for your art business? Simply post the job description and ask them to send in their resumes or contact you.
Your family or friends
There might be skilled people who can work for you within your circles. You can easily contact them and see if they’re interested in working for you.
Step 3: Sort through the applications and conduct interviews
If you opt to hire people through a freelance platform, it’s relatively easier to sort through and select them. You just need to check their bids and choose what suits you the best.
Otherwise, you need to filter through the applicants and select them for an interview. During the interview, make sure you discuss the deliverables and deadline in detail. You can also ask work related questions to analyse their expertise.
Step 4: Onboarding
After you decide who to hire, it is always good to draw up a formal contract that explains each of your duties and remuneration. Once they digitally sign on the contract, get ready to onboard your employee!
Send an email welcoming them to your team and clear steps on how they should start. If the works involves a lot of files to be exchanged, it’s best to have a Google Drive folder to organize them and access them whenever you need.
Things to keep in mind when hiring paid help
Being someone who has hired multiple people to help with business, here are some things that I learned on the way and think might be helpful to you:
1. Hire experienced people: It’s always good to hire people with experience in the respective fields. Hiring completely new people for the job can be hard. They might need a lot of training and time to get things right.
Of course, hiring freshers is not a completely bad idea. Some can prove to do the job well, which is more than enough. You also don’t have to pay them as much as an experienced worker. So, you have to decide based on your requirements. Can you afford to offer training to a newbie and take chances. If yes, hire a fresher. If you need skilled hands on the desk and you have the budget, hire a professional.
2. Build a good relationship: The people you hire are your team, and they are tied to the success of your business. So treat them well, beyond a formal employee-employer relationship. Never forget to give them credit and appreciation for good works they’ve done.
3. See hiring as an investment rather than a cost: You hire people as your business grows. And your employees will contribute to the growth of your business. So, you must not see their salary as a cost. It’s an investment in the future of your business.
4. Learn to detach: Outsourcing work is all about letting go and let another pair of skilled hands take care of the work. It’s easy to get nervous about it the first time because you are used to handling all the work by yourself. But you just need to trust the people you hire and go with the flow.
Hire with confidence!
Hiring your first employee can be exciting and intimidating at the same time. So you need to carefully consider every factor and take wise decisions. At the end of the day, you’re bringing in people who affect your business, no matter how big or small their works are.
You will figure out the rest on the way. All you need to do is take the first step in hiring paid help for your art business.
