The FIRST Thing to Do When Thinking About Hiring Support
Do you ever have an idea you’re considering pursuing, but you can’t get past the starting point? It seems like a good idea in theory, but you can’t figure out what to actually do first.
My clients and students experience this often, especially when starting to hire. And one question that comes up again and again in my work is some variation of: “What advice do you have for bloggers who are thinking about outsourcing, but have no idea where to start?”
Just like so many new endeavors, this really hits the nail on the head: How in the world do we just get started?
In other words, what is the FIRST step to take when you’re looking to bring in outside help?
I love this question so much because the answer is simpler than you might expect it to be, but it’s so important and requires some personal digging.
So, let’s get into the first thing you need to do in order to start your hiring process.
How do I make sure I hire the right person?
Honestly, the first thing to do to hire the right person might sound strange, but it’s to start with YOU. Go internal to evaluate what you need, want and don’t desire doing in your business. Specifically evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.
Here are a couple questions to run through. Consider writing down your answers in a journal or Google doc to refer back to during your hiring endeavor.
What do you love to do in your business?
What aspects light you up, feel effortless or fun and bring you the most joy to do them?
What are you REALLY good at?
For what reason are these things essential for you to continue doing? What value do they add to your day?
Write down your answers to dig into your strengths and Zones of Genius. These items should be your priority to focus on and continue spending your time doing.
What are you putting off or never getting to?
On the flip side, what tasks drain you, always end up at the bottom of your to-do list or just don’t naturally fall into your skillset wheelhouse?
Do you do some tasks only because you have to?
Do you wish you could be doing more of something because it would be good for your business, but you don’t have any desire to learn about it?
These things can go at the top of the list of what you are able to outsource first.
After you have more information about where you excel and where you’d like to spend less time, you can begin deciphering what kinds of roles are available to hire in order to move some of those burdensome tasks off of your plate.
Be wary of hiring people too similar to you.
I’ve noticed that burnout is a big problem for a lot of bloggers, and it seems to be connected to doing all the things for a long period of time.
You’re used to handling everything because that’s largely what you’ve done since the beginning of your business. But as you grow, there comes a time when it’s unsustainable to maintain all of it on your own… at least, not in a healthy manner.
When you take this first step of identifying the work you love to do and uncovering the things that energize you, you can start to build your team around you.
However, a word of caution: One of the bigger mistakes I made early on in hiring was selecting people who were too much like me.
Our strengths AND weaknesses were too similar, and it caused a lot of problems.
But once I became more clear about who I was and what I wanted to be doing, I was able to start hiring freelancers who complement me, and it has worked so much better.
Now, I receive robust support from my team because they have strengths where I’m weak.
Don’t know how to uncover your strengths?
While I was giving this advice about focusing inward before hiring, someone shared that they struggle knowing their strengths.
When we’re so attached to the work, this can be an easy problem to encounter.
We’re used to wearing all the hats, and so digging into where we excel doesn’t feel natural because we HAVE to excel at so much to even be successful, right?
That’s why hiring can be challenging, in a good way. It forces you to evaluate yourself, and your business, in order to bring in support that actually makes sense.
If you don’t know exactly how to uncover your strengths, don’t worry. It’s completely natural as solopreneurs.
Here are a few of my favorite resources and self-evaluations for getting to know yourself and your gifts:
CliftonStrengths Assessment - There is a fee for this one but it’s the gold standard for determining strengths. (It was previously called StrengthsFinder 2.0.)
Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment from 16 Personalities - The reports for each personality type in this evaluation are really thorough and cover a wide range of topics, such as work habits, career, parenting and romantic relationships.
Enneagram Type - This is another way to look at personality that has become popular in the past few years.
Four Tendencies Quiz by Gretchen Rubin - A quiz developed by Gretchen Rubin that gives insight into how you respond to outer expectations (e.g., deadlines) and inner expectations (e.g., New Year’s resolution).
How important is hiring the right person?
When you understand your own strengths and weaknesses, you’re able to hire people who round out your capabilities and add new perspectives, skills and creative ideas to the work… which is everything in hiring for your small business.
It also allows you to find freelancers that don’t add to your shortcomings, making them an even bigger hurdle to navigate than it was when you worked solo.
After all, the whole point of hiring is to feel supported, less tied down to the things you don’t enjoy and able to explore new opportunities for growth.
Knowing who you are on a deeper level will allow you to find the RIGHT people who can help your business to excel.
Wondering what else you need to know about hiring freelancers?
Sign up for my free mini-course all about the 5 things more business owners need to know when it comes to hiring freelance support!
