How to understand that you can no longer work alone and you need employees

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you think it's time for your small business to grow, carefully assess the circumstances and your opportunities.

How to understand that you need employees

To determine when you really need to grow, check if your situation matches any of the following.

1. You refuse clients because you are busy

This can happen if you have several regular customers that take a long time, or there is always a large flow of new applications. You would be happy to fulfill all orders, but there is not enough time. You have to first put clients in a queue, and then refuse altogether when it becomes too long.

2. By completing all tasks yourself, you sacrifice quality

Take website development as an example: if all the stages are worked out by a single specialist, he needs to meet with the client, prepare the layout, and program the internals. Not always a good developer will also be a great designer, and vice versa. It would be more correct to share responsibilities.

3. The speed of project execution is significantly lower than the client's expectations and the market average

If you have several specialists completing the same tasks, it is obvious that the company will be able to handle more orders. And if the project is divided into parts-stages and for each of them a responsible employee is assigned, you can conduct several projects in parallel or several stages of work at the same time. This will shorten the overall lead time.

4. You understand enough in your business to competently control

As soon as you have employees, you will have to answer for them: to clients - for the quality and time of solving problems, and to the employees themselves - for a comfortable stay in the office and payment of their labor on time.

5. You are tired of the craft and ready to lead

While you are alone, you will not be able to scale your business and seriously increase turnover.

6. You have a financial reserve

Calculate how much money will be left for you after paying salaries. If you have enough to live comfortably, then you can afford employees, and if not, you have to dig in. Otherwise, the firm will provide for itself, but not for you.

7. Would you like to spend the free time on the development of the case

You know how to improve your life's work, but you don't have the time or energy left for strategic planning.

It's great if most of the points match! If at least three signs do not apply to your business, then it is worth predicting whether this will change in the future and how it might hinder if it does not change.

How to calculate how many employees you need

First of all, it will be about the team that is working on one project. If you had one store, and you open a network, it is obvious that each should have a salesperson, or even several.

1. Pick 10 common projects that you completed recently.
2. Break them down into small steps.
3. Determine which of them are similar to each other - that is, one person can work on them.
4. Assign a virtual employee to each such stage, guess his qualifications.
5. Make a plan for the implementation of the project (Gantt chart) by day or hour - depending on the scale. If someone ends up with too little work to do, add another step to the employee. If there are too many, try dividing tasks.

There is a myth that a company with many employees will be better at fulfilling orders. In reality, such a firm can simply carry out more projects at a time. Even the smallest business is capable of efficiently working on one order.

What to do if there is no budget for a full-time team

The team can be assembled without having a bag of cash or a large deposit in the bank. Here are three ways to keep your employee costs down.

1. Turn to freelancers

Look for performers for specific tasks. Over time, you will have reliable contacts and you will form a team of remote workers. The main disadvantage is that such performers are difficult to control. But this problem is solvable: many freelancers don't like working from home, so you can get people who are comfortable in your office. Just offer them a piecework option instead of a salary.

Dignity

• You pay when the task is completed, when the customer has already settled with you.
• If you have no orders, you pay nothing to anyone.
• Such employees can bring new orders from their third-party clients.

disadvantages

• Besides you, the freelancer has other customers. Your tasks will be performed on a first come, first served basis.
• If the workers are remote, then there is a control problem.

2. Consider outsourcing and subcontracting

In this case, you act as an agent: an order has appeared, you have estimated your benefits for attracting a project, and the work on it has been transferred to another performer. Or they even split the project into separate tasks and entrusted it to several firms.

Dignity

• The contract with the client is concluded by another organization, you do not need to lead the project.
• You receive an agency fee before the final settlement of the executing company with the customer.

disadvantages

• The amount of agency fees is less than the income of the executing company.
• If the client decides to continue cooperation, you will no longer earn money from this, since an intermediary is no longer needed.

3. Take a prepayment

Work in advance, then you will not have to use working capital (but it is still advisable to form a reserve for some time of autonomous activity).