Hire Your First Employee. Rhonda Abrams

I must offer employees a whole range of costly benefits. Legally, the number of benefits you must offer is surprisingly small. However, you’ll probably choose to offer more to get the best employees. I’ll have to pay payroll taxes as well as salary or wages. That’s true. Budget for these as you plan. And when legal, you can use independent contractors without paying taxes. I don’t have enough money saved up to hire full-time employees. You can start small—hiring part-time workers or contractors. I don’t have enough space in my office for an employee. Many businesses can have employees who telecommute at least part of the time. I’ll spend all my time on paperwork, managing payroll, and figuring taxes. A wealth of services, like online payroll, help you handle these quickly and easily. Managing other people will take up too much of my time. Once you get systems in place, you should have more time for doing work you’re best at. Employees are lazy, more trouble than they’re worth. Most people are eager to do a good job. Train them well and manage fairly, and they’ll work hard for you.

       High Unemployment = Lots of Great Prospects

      Frankly, when unemployment is high, it’s a buyer’s market for those hiring. You’ll find better workers, at lower cost, willing to be more flexible.

      Certainly, a job loss is devastating to the people who are laid off. However, this means that some of the most skilled workers are available to help you take your business to the next level. And although it’s awful when recent college graduates can’t find good jobs, that means there are lots of eager, smart, young people you can add to your team.

      Times of high unemployment offers employers:

      

Cheaper labor. Prospects recognize they may have to take lower wages or salaries to get a job.

      

Talented employees. In good times, it’s often hard for small companies to compete against big corporations for the best people. In bad times, even highly talented, experienced employees are willing to work for small companies, or have been laid off from corporate positions, bringing unmatched experience to you.

      

Flexible workers. Job prospects are more willing to work around your needs and schedule, including being more open to part-time work or off-hours.

      

Greater choice of independent contractors. Just as more prospects are willing to work part-time, you’ll find a large pool of talented people willing to work as independent contractors, exploring self-employment or making money until they find another full-time job.

      

Experienced retirees. Recessionary conditions mean many workers accepted “early retirement” packages, while other retirees have seen their retirement savings and investments decline. This means many more experienced workers are looking for part-time or full-time roles to use the skills they’ve gained over a lifetime.

      Even if your dream isn’t to start a multi-billion enterprise, history shows that if large, long-standing corporations can take-off during a challenging economy, your company can too!

Envisioning the Growth of Your Business

      Before you begin the hiring process, you need to begin to make the “mental leap” to this next stage of your business. Perhaps you’ve been a “solo-preneur,” working on your own, maybe basing your business from your home. Hiring someone will make a major change in your lifestyle as well as your business. Perhaps you’re starting the type of business that requires one or more employees right off the bat, such as a restaurant, store, or manufacturing plant. Besides building a business, you also have to build your skills as “boss”—spending part of your time managing and leading employees.

      Where do you see your business in a year? Three years? Five years? How does having employees or other workers help you achieve your goals? Think about adding employees within the context of your larger business goals.

      Use the worksheet “Goals for Growing My Business” to consider what you want your business to look like in the next few years. That gives you a context for deciding what type of employees to hire and how soon.

      The fact is, adding an employee to your business is one of the most powerful methods for bringing in more work from new and existing customers, delivering a higher level of service or giving yourself the time to brainstorm innovative new products and services. In other words, you can hire your way to growth.

The Ultimate Social Responsibility

      Many entrepreneurs hope that their businesses will have a positive impact on society—that their companies will not only make a profit but help to make the world a better place. They’ve identified a product or service that people need or want and hope to fill that void. Most care about their communities, the environment, helping reduce poverty. But few people talk about the tremendous positive impact that creating a good job has on society as a whole. And how satisfying it truly is—if you allow yourself to recognize the importance of creating jobs.

      The ultimate act of social responsibility is to create a job—a good job—and then to treat your employees fairly and decently. Think about this for a moment: did you ever have a job where they paid you a good, competitive wage, in a work environment where people were given respect and thanked when they did a good job? Where you had a chance to have your ideas listened to, where there was no discrimination or bias? If you did, you know what a wonderful difference it made in your life. Every day you had a chance to spend your hours in a positive environment—even if you had to work hard. If you didn’t—and most people don’t—then you can imagine how wonderful such a work environment like that would be.

      You—as an employer—have the opportunity to create that kind of situation for others. And that’s an incredibly important contribution to the world. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a demanding boss—you can indeed demand hard work and high standards. But if you can create a job, pay fair wages and benefits, respect and acknowledge your employees, and create an environment of fairness and acceptance, you can go to sleep at night—every night—knowing that you have changed the lives of others for the better. And they, in turn, will change yours.

worksheet: Goals for Growing My Business

       Specific Goals:

      Enter the number or amount you hope to achieve for your business in one year, five years, and ten years.

       Priorities:

      Rate your priorities for your business.

      chapter

      2

      Scope Out Your Specific Needs

       “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest