I Failed At First
Want to know my personal story about hiring?
I believe many of you can relate to my story, especially as we strive to grow our businesses. When I started my business, I was eager to handle everything on my own. My background in accounting and corporate experience gave me the confidence to manage my clients’ needs effectively. However, as my client base grew, I realized I needed help to maintain the level of service my clients expected.
I’m sure many of you experts have run into this same problem. I was trying to juggle it all. I was wearing all of the hats plus trying to stay up to date in my industry. My desire for starting a business was to have freedom but I found myself needing more hours in the day.
I was sharing this with one of my clients one day and she said, “I know someone who can help you”. Great! Because I need help. Without doing much prep, I hired my first contractor.
My First Attempt at Hiring
My first attempt at hiring was a learning experience. My first hire was, let’s call her Kim, or maybe that’s her real name… a contract bookkeeper who had some accounting knowledge but no experience with QuickBooks Online. I quickly discovered that training her increased my workload rather than reducing it. Ugh! Kim did come to me with some accounting skills but it was an uphill battle teaching her Quickbooks Online. This cycle is what most business owners don’t want to go through. It can be quite frustrating. I hired someone to increase my productivity but it actually decreased my productivity. Here comes the old cliche’ I can do it faster alone. Despite my best efforts, after 90 days, it became clear that this person was not a good fit for what I needed at this point in my business. I felt defeated, but I didn’t give up.
Questions To Ask Yourself
- Were my expectations too high?
- Do I have what it takes to have a team member?
- Do I know how to find the right person?
Have you ever felt this way too? Did you consider giving up because having a team member means more work for you?
I understand the frustration. I tried to hire again. This time, I was better at accessing the skills needed. I was also better at creating a training plan. I also got better at checking in on the quality of work. The second hire was a much smoother training process. We got up to speed more quickly. I was able to effectively delegate tasks to my new contractor. But, there is always something to learn. This time, I learned that I didn’t set appropriate expectations. This contractor felt as though she was the owner and took the liberty to make decisions about the client’s work that we had not discussed. This led to my second attempt at hiring ending in defeat after six months just as we started to increase our productivity.
This experience led to valuable lessons that helped me grow as a leader. After taking some time to assess where I went wrong, I tried again! This time, I hit the jackpot. I hired Evan! Evan has been an integral part of my team for eight years now. Evan and I have grown together. His own personal values align with the company’s values. He embodies our mission to bridge the gap between our clients’ knowledge and the profit they generate in their business. Evan was teachable. Over time, we built trust. When you trust your team members, they allow you, the owner, to grow the business because you trust them.
The Journey
This journey taught me the importance of persistence and the value of investing in the right people. Evolving as a leader and putting time and money into my team’s growth has been a game changer for my business. Throughout the years, I have hired and I have let people go but I have always been aware of the growth opportunities in each situation. I double down on the good things and I let go of the bad things.
Over the next few blog posts, we will go deeper into the lessons I learned while building a thriving team for my small business.
Are you in the process of building your team, or have you had similar challenges? I’d love to hear your experiences because sharing our stories helps us grow.
Let’s have a conversation about how we can support each other in building successful teams.
Comment below or reach out to me to continue the conversation.
