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Hiring an employee is a significant milestone for any business. Not only are you expanding your team, but you’re freeing up time so you can focus on growing and building your business. Adding someone with new skills and expertise can also enhance your overall capabilities and bring fresh perspectives to the table, enabling you to tackle challenges you couldn’t handle alone.

However, making the decision to hire isn’t always easy. Many businesses face the challenge of limited cash flow, making it difficult to commit to an additional salary. It can feel like a leap of faith when you hire someone in hope that increased sales and business growth will follow.

Reaching capacity indicators

When your business succeeds, you’re soon going to hit your personal capacity. No matter how hard you work, or how many hours you spend on your business, there’s only so much you can do on your own. The following circumstances are good indicators you need extra help:

• You’re getting more orders or more customers than you can manage, and it’s taking longer and longer to fill orders.
• You’re fielding increasing customer complaints over delays.
• You’re working every weekend, and the administration tasks are overwhelming.
• You’re spending more time ordering stock from suppliers, managing stock levels and completing customer-related paperwork.
• You’ve started to say no to new work and missing new business opportunities.
• When you reach these capacity indicators, it’s clear that the time has come to bring in support, so that you can continue to meet customer expectations and drive growth without sacrificing the quality of your work or your well-being.

Risk reduction options

If the cost of hiring a full-time employee feels like too much of a financial commitment, there are alternative staffing options that can provide the support you need while reducing the associated risks. These options include:

• Hiring a part-time employee to cover specific hours each week.
• Bringing in short-term employees when your workload is unpredictable.
• Engaging a contractor for project-based tasks.

Calculate the total cost of employment

Employees can be a significant expense to the business so it’s important to work out their total cost of employment. It’s how to make sure that your new employee will add to your total profit.

Employment costs may include some of the following:

• Their salary or wages.
• Your contributions to insurances and any employee benefits, health insurance etc.
• Equipment required for the job, such as computers, vehicles, or uniforms.
• Recruitment and training.
• Understanding the total cost of employment will help you make a financially sound decision, so you can determine whether the investment in a new hire will ultimately contribute to your bottom line.

Calculate the potential

When you’re on your own, your business is all about you achieving results through your own efforts. With an employee, your business changes and it becomes all about achieving results through others.

That can be a challenge for business owners who are used to working solo, but without people, your business will only ever be as big as you.

Your employees can help expand your business and bring in more revenue and more customers. Over time, you can grow to the point where you can even step away from your business for a week or two and know your team will be running it efficiently for you until you return. And that’s a great feeling!

At some stage you’ll need to take a deep breath, take the plunge and hire someone else. It can be scary but it’s also one of the most worthwhile and rewarding things you will do. Employing others and helping them build a career and supporting their family is a big responsibility. But in return they will contribute to your business success and profit, allowing you to then take on the next employee.