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When you have a small business, you may wonder when you should bring on more employees. Some business owners might want to hire a full staff when they first startup, but that can be risky, so you might feel most comfortable if you can wait until the business has begun to be successful. Before you can make this decision, you will need to take the time to consider the options so you can take different factors into account.
You Are Able to Afford to Grow
Hiring more staff can be helpful when it comes to tackling tasks in a more efficient manner. However, you want to keep your budget in mind. You should only hire new employees if you can afford to pay their salaries. If you don’t have enough cash flow, you might strain your business finances, and this can result in layoffs.
Depending on the tasks you need help with, you could start by outsourcing the work. It can cost some money to source, hire, and train new employees for your organization. It’s a good idea to set aside funds to make the initial hire possible. One option is to look for a small business loan. They come with different resources such as coaching and support in both English and Spanish.
You Are Ready to Bring Some Work In-House
If you are just finding yourself as a business, you may want to outsource some work instead of bringing on more staff members to take care of them. However, you may find it makes more sense for you to do these things in-house. As you start, outsourcing can be a great way of freeing up workers for other tasks. However, when you expand, it can be expensive and complex to outsource work.
Hiring employees allows you to have someone to focus on your specific business needs full-time. Having an employee can be more effective than outsourcing because of the amount of effort and dedication required to learn about your business needs.
Time is Lost on Unimportant Tasks
Consider your situation carefully. Is there unfinished work at the end of each day? Are you tempted to go home and do more in the evening? Think about the administrative tasks you have to do and consider whether you need someone else to take these things on. Hiring more staff to take care of bills or respond to customer inquiries frees up your valuable time to pay attention to revenue-generating tasks.
Team Members are Feeling Overwhelmed
Even if you can keep things running okay, you may notice employees are showing signs of burnout. They may start taking more sick days or calling out from work. They may feel frustrated or tired from the amount of work piled on them every day.
Many employees don’t want to come out and say they are overwhelmed, as they don’t want to lose their jobs. You will need to take the time to give employees the recognition they crave and also check in with each individual. It is a good idea to speak with employees to determine how they are doing. They may not say they are feeling overworked, but you should go with your gut as you consider how your staff is handling the number of tasks.
You Aren’t Doing as Well at Customer Service
If you are not able to offer a high level of customer service, you may need to bring on more staff members. Overworked employees may miss deadlines or not be able to complete tasks on time, so you could take this as a sign to add to the team.
Not having enough staff members can cause current employees to burn out or damage your company’s brand image. It can be expensive to bring more people onto the team, but it can cost more to get new customers than to retain ones who are already loyal. Plus, a high churn rate can be detrimental to your business’s health. Pay attention to how quickly orders are filled, whether emails and calls are returned in a timely manner, and whether work is getting done.
You Have to Turn Down Business
Whether you get a large contract or have a great opportunity, getting new business means you are starting to grow. But if you have to turn these things down, it might be time to think about increasing your staff members. If you have a strong business in place, bringing on new employees can make the upfront costs worthwhile.
If you have more work only during certain times, you may get staff members for a limited amount of time. You might want to get temporary contractors if you need them. Just make sure you understand legal considerations when choosing to use contractors or temporary employees. You don’t want your organization to get in trouble for misclassifying an independent contractor.
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