Help Wanted!
This just in, “You will need people to help you grow your business”! Now, that’s only if you want to grow from a one person operation. For those who do want to grow, you need to decide who you need on your team and what employee classification they will fall into. Here are some keys to help you get started:
Get help. Don’t hire without knowing the ground rules. Seek out advice from professionals who can get and keep you in the game. An accountant, attorney or human resource professional can lead you in the right direction. The direction of course is how to hire a new team member. As you look for a team, consider a full time employee, independent contractor, intern or strategic partnerships. Each one of these classifications have some type of legal and financial implications to them. Your professional advisors can provide you with the right plays to help you win in the game of business.
Define roles. Ok, you now know the advantages and disadvantages of each classifications. As you go about operating and growing your business, you will need to determine how other people will fit. First, determine your role and if that is the role you are more comfortable with and if that is the role that will grow the company. Now, enlist others like mentors and your advisory board to help you hash out what skills compliment yours in growing the business. Work with your team of experts to write job descriptions, compensation plans, and an employee handbook.The experts will determine what other resources are needed.
Resources to explore. For starters and a good resource, visit http://bit.ly/hireclass. Its one of the resources from the Internal Revenue Service.
Next step. Now that you have new information about hiring, what action will you take? If you are ready to take action, put together a new hire map. Draw a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper. Inside the circle, you can either put a specific project or the skill you need for your business. Draw lines away from the circle. The lines represent how you will onboard the new hire. They will include an action step including tasks (skill needed), where to identify the individual(s), financial resources to pay for the individual, and a timetable for the entire process. This is a simple visual guide to bringing on resources to help you grow your business. Here’s to improving and progressing!
Omar S. Muhammad is an EN-TRE-PRE-NEUR and is the director & entrepreneur for the Entrepreneurial Development & Assistance Center at Morgan State University. You can reach him at omarsmuhammad@gmail.com.