Repeat after me – the job of an entrepreneur is not to do the job, it’s to be the creator of jobs.
Do you know only 14% of people will ever start a business? And only 20% out of that will build a sustainable, profitable business.
The rest of the folks are looking for good, reliable jobs with good, reliable companies.
Entrepreneurs are in the unique position to create employment opportunities not just for themselves, but others as well. You can drive employment and economic growth through your small business, and the world needs you now more than ever.
Your job is to create a powerful business. Not to do the work, but to empower others who are seeking good work. This will only increase productivity and efficiency in your business.
That’s why I wrote Clockwork Revised and Expanded. There’s a new method to teach and empower your team so they can become the leaders of your organization. Here are some strategies to help with your recruiting and hiring new employees:
- Interview & Hiring – When should you hire? If you feel as though you could use the help but are grinding it out, take that as a desperate, subconscious plea to yourself that you need help now. You will have to break out of the mindset that you have to do it all or that you cannot afford to hire. Break into the new mindset: what will this look like long term? By freeing up some of your time, will it create more opportunities for you to design business strategies? (Hint, the answer is yes.) Also to note: you don’t have to follow a traditional full-time, in person employee model. My observation and experience is that part-timers tend to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time, too.
- Integrate – You need to get the right people doing the right things right. Sure skills are important, yet not the end all be all because you can provide the skills. What you want is the attitude, cultural fit and are motivated to support your mission. Every person has an extraordinary talent, so find out what theirs is. What are your teams’ super strengths and zones of genius? You must reassess and if necessary realign their roles with what their strengths and joys are to get the most efficient outcome. To note – their joys are usually their strengths.
- Empower – It’s your job to set your employees up for success. This means you provide them with resources (read, systems) that empower them to be most effective, and the autonomy to feel true psychological ownership in their roles and output.
- Delegate delegate delegate – You’re not hiring employees to micromanage. You’re hiring employees to create unparalleled efficiencies in your organization. It’s tough for entrepreneurs to trust their vision to others, but if you hire the right team you’ll be able to. Start with low risk transfers of responsibility and let them work at their own pace while you measure the output. From there, you can decide how much to trust them with a more robust role.
Entrepreneurs should be designing, not doing all the doing. Don’t do the jobs yourself, be the creator of jobs.
You’ve got this!
-Mike
