First Hires as a Professional?

[elementgs]

I've long since passed the point of needing to hire someone but the past few individuals I've brought in really just haven't been able to keep up and I'm growing increasingly frustrated...

So with that said, if you were to do it all over again, who would you hire first, and second, and third, etc?

I need a social media manager for sure, though I'm still debating about offloading my entire social media marketing platform to an organization to manage because I really need a solid professional behind the wheel, not someone who "knows how to use Instagram".

Needing a production assistant as well, and of course I could benefit from an Intern to follow me around in the field..

Anyways, I'm tired of wearing 10 hats... but I can't afford to hire 10 people yet.. so, with that said, who would you hire first and why?

 

[KmH]

I would need to come visit you and your business for about a week before I could make an informed recommendation.
My consulting rate is $500 per hour - plus expenses, so it shouldn't cost you more than about $35,000.

Oh.
Wait.
I forgot.
I'm retired.

 

[Dmariehill]

To answer your question, you have to ask yourself some questions.

What part of the business do you struggle with the most? ie - takes to much time, not your wheelhouse, just don't like doing it

What part of your tasks that are falling through the cracks will have the biggest impact on your bottom line? Either through loss of revenue or generation of revenue.

You're sounding a little stressed - what would lower that stressful feeling the most? If you can only offload one job, which job helps you personally the most to offload?

It's hard for someone else to answer because they may have different strengths or weaknesses than you do.

 

[tirediron]

The other consideration is: How much will that hire cost you? By the time all is said and done, it will be a great deal more than the $15-20/hr you're going to pay them. Is it worth it to off-load 15% of your work, for 25% of your income?

 

[loonatic45414]

Consider you'd have to hire 3 people to replace you. If you could unload a third of your work onto 1 person and that allows you to pursue new business that would double your bottom line, it's worth it.

If you take what was said earlier, unload 15% of your work for 25% of your income, that WILL happen. You may be even worse as far as numbers go. But the other side of the coin is, how much new business could you pursue by increasing your efficiency?

Ultimately, you could hire some good people to replace all the legwork and you remain in the office to do the sales portion, only showing up on bigger contracts just to help coordinate & meet with the client.

Add in the cost of insuring/bonding these individuals & make sure you get no compete agreements for your area. You don't want them stealing your business.