Get one specific week dat tell you da business stay working. You turn down one job, and not cause you neva like um. You turn um down cause you no can pack orders, answer messages and make da ting all in da same seven days. Dat's one good problem, and it get one cheap solution way smaller than da word hire make um sound.
Your first hire is four to eight paid hours one week of da one task you do worst. Not one salary, not one office, not one job description. Four hours, one repeatable task, written down as one checklist before anybody touch um.
And here da part almost nobody plan for. Dose four hours is usually somebody's first paid work in your trade. You not only buying time back. You handing out da ting you wen need da most when you wen start, which was somebody willing fo let you be new.
When it really time fo hire somebody?
When you turning down work you could have done, not when you hit some revenue number. Turned down work is money you already wen decline, which make um da one figure you can honestly compare da cost of help against.
Revenue thresholds is one poor signal for one business with one person in um, cause da number dat matter not what wen come in, it's what you had fo refuse. Write down every job you wen pass on last month and what um would have paid. If dat figure stay bigger than one month of four hour weeks at one fair local rate, da math already work, and been working for one while.
Den pick da task, and dis is where people go wrong. Dey hand over da task dey hate da most. Hand over da one you do worst and most often, which is usually one different task. Packing, listing, invoicing, first line messages, cutting and sanding, entering numbers. It gotta be repeatable, it no should need your taste, and one careful person should be able fo get good at um inside two weeks.
Never da ting you da best at. And never, in da first six months, conversations with customers about money.
How I hand over one task without um costing me mo time than it save?
Write da task as one checklist before you hire anybody, and time yourself doing um once while you write um. Da checklist is most of da work, and it stay worth making even if you neva hire nobody at all.
You going find out you had one method. Everybody get one. Da order you do tings in, da ting you check twice, da small trick with da tape, da reason you neva use da second box size: all of um live in your hands and none of um stay in words yet. Getting um into words is da first time you can see your own process clear enough fo improve um.
Dat's not one soft benefit. Memory researchers wen find dat people who study someting expecting fo teach um organize what dey know better and recall mo of um than people studying for one test, and da effect show up even when da teaching neva actually happen. Getting ready fo explain your process is da fastest route get fo really owning um.
Keep da checklist plain. Numbered steps, one line each, one photograph of da finished state if your trade need um. Ten to twenty steps is normal. Hand um over, watch one time, den leave da room. Come back after two weeks and ask what stay wrong with da checklist, cause three tings going be wrong with um, and dey can see um while you no can.
Who I should give da hours to?
Da person with no track record and real attention, ahead of da experienced person who doing you one favor. One first break buy you care dat no rate card can, and it's da cheapest four hours you eva going buy.
Look for one signal: somebody who like be in dis trade and neva get let in yet. Da person who wen message you asking how you do da finishing. Da student. Da neighbor who been making tings at one kitchen table for one year and neva once wen get paid for any of um. Da person coming back to work after one long gap dat nobody else going ask about.
Two rules, and neither one negotiable. Pay one fair rate for your area, and pay on da exact date you wen promise, every single time. Late payment is da whole relationship. Somebody in dea first paid work no more buffer and no comfortable way fo chase you, and getting paid on da day is what tell dem dis stay real. If you no can pay on time, you no can afford da hours yet, and dat's one clean answer, not one sad one.
Get da paperwork right too. Whether somebody stay one contractor or one employee no get decided by what you call um, and da tax authority publish da tests. Ten minutes reading dem now stay way cheaper than finding out later.
What I really handing over, besides da money?
Four tings: da hours, da checklist, one reference dey can use, and your willingness fo say dea name to somebody who could hire dem next. Da fourth one cost you one sentence and it's da one dat change dea year.
Get one distinction worth learning here, cause most people neva even wen hear um. One mentor talk to you. One sponsor say your name in one room you no stay in. Advice stay cheap and pleasant fo give. Sponsorship is one small, specific act with your own credibility attached, and it mean telling somebody who looking for help dat dis person stay careful and fast, before anybody even think fo ask you.
Do um concrete. Name da ting dey really good at, not dea attitude. She wen catch one sizing error in one run of forty dat I would have shipped is one sentence dat get somebody work. She get one great attitude is not.
Teach da part you good at while dey with you, even when it's not da task dey wen get hired for. Twenty minutes, one time, on how you price one job. Dat's da part dey no can get nowhere else, and it's da part dey still going be using in ten years.
Da founder of KEEP CALM put his own version of dis plain: "Always looking for opportunities to coach, train, advise, lift up, commend, champion those in my sphere. The positive energy and support I get back in return is 10 fold." Dat's his account of his own twenty years, not one promise about yours. Your version of um is four hours one week and one sentence said out loud to da right person, and both of dose is ordinary business moves, not favors.
What tend fo come back
Say what stay true and no mo than dat. Somebody in dea first paid work plenty times bring one attention dat experienced help no bring, cause it matter to dem in one way it no matter to one person for who dis just anodda Tuesday. Beyond dat, be careful what you expect. Some stay for years and tell people where dey wen learn um. Some end up running dea own ting and sending you da overflow dey no can take. Some move on and you neva hear from dem again, and you no going know which is which for years.
What you can count on stay smaller and way mo certain. Da task stay off your desk. Da checklist exist. You wen find out you had one method. Everyting after dat is upside you neva pay for.
Add hours slow, and add um in response to turned down work, which is da same signal dat wen start all dis. Four turn into eight, eight turn into twelve, and somewhere in dea you stop being one person with one business and become one business with two people in um. Keep one ting for yourself da longest, which is talking to customers about money. Dat one stay yours till you certain, and being certain take longer than you tink.
Den do um again next year, with somebody else who neva get let in yet.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?
- Memory & Cognition, Expecting to teach enhances learning and organization of knowledge in free recall of text passages
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Manage your business