* Please note: We have 4 lovely ladies as part of today’s episode. In order to keep these show notes tidy, we have summarized our discussion below. Please listen to the above link to hear the entire interview.
Today, we are continuing The Dream Team series and we’re talking with my team about what you need to know when you’re getting ready to hire your dream team.
You’ve already determined from the last episode, that it’s time to bring some support into your business. Now, you have to figure out, where do you find the right fit, so that you don’t waste a ton of time, energy, and money trying to figure out the right person to be helping you behind the scenes.
I have to say, this is one area that we do pretty darn well. Most of my team has been with me for years. Amber has been working behind the scenes with me for five or six years now and Katie and Lane for a little over three almost four years. That’s pretty unusual, especially in this online business space.
We see a lot of people who just seem to go through assistants and designers and VA’s and all sorts of different people behind the scenes, which leads to a lot of frustration for the entrepreneur and a team, a business that’s just not really working the way that it should.
Some tips from The Dream Team before bringing someone in:
Try not to hire out of place of overwhelm. One of the challenges I see for a lot of entrepreneurs is they start hiring out of this place of panic and overwhelm, then it just leads to a disaster when they bring somebody in.
Start a list of tasks that you need off your plate, then you and new team members can come up with a plan.
Each time you find yourself a repetitive task, make a checklist or process out of it. So when the time comes to pass the task off, you have documented the proper steps.
Think about your management and communication style.
- How do you envision communication going?
- How would you like to manage your team?
- Would you like daily weekly updates?
- How would you like to receive those updates?
- How comfortable are you at delegating tasks?
If you can sit down for a few minutes and think these things through, it can start a conversation about what we could do together and how that would work.
What team member should you hire first?
Decide where you hire first is where is your biggest pain point. Whether it’s admin, techy or customer service, which one will bring you the most relief? One person may be kind of okay with their admin side, but the techy stuff is really making them crazy.
If it’s technical or it’s admin, or it’s some other specialty thing that’s happening in your business, I think that looking for that is probably the key to where you go first.
[clickToTweet tweet=”If you have limited resources to start a team, advertise whatever is straining you the most. ” quote=”If you have limited resources to start a team, advertise whatever is straining you the most. ” theme=”style2″]
Where do you find your team?
Start talking to other entrepreneurs in your community. Other people that you are in mastermind group with, that you’re in a program with. There’s a ton of places you can post and you can interview and go through people and people will apply, but I think definitely if you can go referral based from other people, other entrepreneurs in your area, is perfect.
Hiring from within your own community is always a good option as well. Those people know you, they’re familiar with you, they support your business already by being part of the community. You never know, that might be a perfect fit.
How to ensure your Dream Team is the right fit for you:
Are their strengths different from yours? Sometimes chemistry is easy but long term, things may not work out because their strengths may be so similar to yours. You also need to think about how their strengths and your strengths complement your business.
Use a Strengths Finder test! You don’t want a whole team of “Mini-me’s” because that won’t fill in the gaps in your business. We’ve had really good luck with the Fascination Advantage or the Colby Advantage tests. You want people who fill in your gaps, because even if you have great chemistry, if they can’t do the pieces you need them to do, it’s not gonna work.
Ask your applicant to do a mini assignment. Don’t be afraid to give them a test project or have a trial period because it works in both people’s favor just to make sure it’s a good fit so that it’s a sustainable, can be a long term relationship.