first employee

Summary: If you spend most of your time on tasks that don’t contribute to business growth, you’re turning down work and never have time for yourself or your family – it’s time to hire your first employee. Here are some signs you need a new team member.

When you launch the best product or service for the right market, your business will grow rapidly, and sales will start rolling in. But as the business grows, so will be your responsibilities.

You will soon wear different hats – the CEO, marketing manager, operations manager, receptionist, accountant, cleaner, and the list goes on.

If you can handle these responsibilities comfortably, then, by all means, carry on. But if you find it overwhelming and can hardly keep up with your company’s fast pace, then it’s probably time to find someone skillful to help.

So, how do you tell it’s time to recruit your first talent?

1. Hire When You Need More Than a Freelancer

When your business is still small, it makes sense to hire a freelancer to tackle most of the tasks, whether it’s online marketing, email marketing, or bookkeeping. 

While freelancers are usually good at what they do, most of them work with other clients. Therefore, they may not be effective when it comes to being on the ground and handling tasks on a full-time basis.

That’s where a full-time employee comes into the picture. When your business gets busy, you may need someone to be physically present at the premises to help with day-to-day duties. 

Unlike an online-based freelancer, a full-time employee will be more effective and productive, as they are familiar with everything that goes on in your business. You can also easily track the work of an employee and get them to do more for you.

2. You’re Turning Work Down

As your business starts to grow, new clients will start knocking on your doors. If you don’t have the capacity, you’ll turn down the new work, and that’s not good for business because they might move on to your competitors. 

This is the best time to create a powerful first impression when prospects start emailing or calling you regarding new opportunities.

So, instead of losing customers (and revenue), why not hire the right skill for the job? Start by considering the type of skills your prospects are interested in. Do they need content creation, email marketing, or social media marketing?

Instead of turning down work, promise to get back to them with more details later and start looking for an employee whose skills match your clients’ job requirements.

3. Hire If There’s an Uptick in Customer Complaints

A major risk of a solopreneur is that, in most cases, customer service will be sub-par. If you’re too busy to pick calls from clients, miss deadlines, or take forever to reply to emails, you’ll soon start seeing an increased number of complaints.

And if you don’t act fast, negative online reviews can come in thick and fast, and you’ll start losing clients. The cost of losing just one high-paying client may be way higher than one employee’s salary.

But there’s a bigger problem: you may lose a client who may tell others about your poor customer service. This can jeopardize the reputation of your business in no time. So, before deciding to go solo, be sure to keep up with rising customer demands.

Some customers need adjustments to a logo you designed. Others require you to create content with quick turnaround time, and some need some clarification from you. 

Each of these clients needs undivided attention, so if you know you can’t meet their expectations, you may want to hire someone to assist.

While hiring a new employee is costly, failing to take this step can hurt your business. Thus, look at the workload you have and start hunting for the right talent, so you don’t put your reputation on the line.

4. You’re Losing Valuable Time on Nonessential Tasks

When your business is at its early stage, you’ll handle nearly everything, from answering phone calls to posting on your social media page. 

This may look good at first, but keep in mind you’re the company’s mastermind and CEO. Every minute you spend on nonessential activities could be used to grow the business to greater heights.

Networking with stakeholders, seeking new revenue sources, and hiring new talent is crucial for business growth. 

If you notice you’re spending most of your time on repetitive tasks, such as blogging, social media management, tracking website traffic, sending email newsletters, deleting annoying emails, backing up files and paperwork, it’s time to hire a new employee. 

Hire a skilled person and delegate these tasks to them so you can focus on growing the business.

5. You Can’t Find Any Time for a Break or Vacation

Sure, work is important, and without it, your business won’t grow. But creating a work-life balance is equally essential. If you keep working nonstop, you may develop a burnout, which might, in turn, hurt productivity.

That’s why a vacation is critical, as it reduces your stress levels and prevents burnout. After returning from a vacation, you’ll have a relaxed and refreshed mental state that makes your tasks easier. So, to stay productive and creative, you need to take frequent breaks from work.

If you can’t find time for breaks, it means you’re probably overworked and need help. Go ahead and hire a competent person to continue working whenever you’re away.

It might be difficult at first to leave your business in someone else’s hands. But as a business owner and employer, you need to learn how to delegate and share responsibilities. 

Once your business grows and you add more members to your team, you will need those skills to make everything run smoothly. Hiring the right people will give you peace of mind that your on demand business runs successfully while you take some much-deserved time off.

Final Thoughts

A growing business requires your attention as the business owner, but you don’t have to be a solopreneur forever. 

Going it alone may mean you risk losing customers, suffering burnout, and having inadequate time with your loved ones. 

Bringing an employee on board might seem costly at first, but it’s profitable in the long run.

Jasmine Williams covers the good and the bad of today’s business and marketing. When she’s not being all serious and busy, she’s usually hunched over a book or dancing in the kitchen, trying hard to maintain rhythm, and delivering some fine cooking (her family says so).

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.