Hiring Your First Employee

Hiring your first employee is an important step for a business, and you want to lay the groundwork for this to be a success.  Below are the initial set of questions you should ask yourself as you consider if now is the time:

1. Is your business growing faster than you can keep up?
   Do you always feel like you are chasing your own shadow?  This may mean it’s time to bring on another person, but it could also mean that you need to evaluate your business to make sure that you, the owner, are focusing on the most important parts of the business.

2. Will another person allow you to expand production, expand your markets, or reach more customers?
   Are you turning down opportunities because you just do not have the ability to clone yourself?  Bringing on another person to take advantage of those opportunities could be the answer, but that will only happen if your business changes to adjust for those new opportunities.

3. Will that expansion and increased revenue be enough to cover additional labor expenses and overhead?
   It all comes down to money. Your business’s financials need to support the hiring. A new hire has to bring in enough additional revenue not only to cover their direct labor costs, but also the indirect costs associated with the hire and the management of the hire. 

4. Are you ready to manage an employee?
   Can you let go?  Not of the business, not of your ownership of the business, but can you let go of certain tasks?  If you find yourself always saying, “No one can do it as good as I can” or “It’s too important a task to trust anyone else to do”, guess what?  You may  have a really hard time managing an employee.  You will have to communicate with another individual not only your vision, but also the details and processes necessary to achieve that vision.

5. How organized are you?
   Can you keep track of basic records?  You have to keep track of timesheets, payroll records, and employer policies.  None of these are hard to keep, but you need to set up a system early in the process to manage them effectively. 

KCARD works with Kentucky agricultural businesses every day to help them grow.  Let us know if you want to make your first (or twentieth) hire and could use our help in setting up good systems and processes in your business.