9 Signs You Need To Hire Your First Employee

Owning your own business is a roller coaster. Launching, getting clients or customers and selling your products or services. It can be an exciting time, but it can also be a struggle. When you’re starting out there’s no guarantee of how much money you’ll make or when you’ll start to break even.

It can be nerve-racking not knowing if it’ll feast or famine month to month. Because of this initial uncertainty, many business owners can be reluctant to hire their first employee when the time comes.

Hiring your first employee can feel like a huge step! For a start, you’ll have to let someone else into your business. That means opening your working life, perhaps for the first time, to possible criticism. You’ll certainly have to let go of a little control and share what once was yours only. You could even feel a little insecure at the prospect of greater responsibility and additional costs.

So, how do you know if you’re ready? What are the signs?

Here are nine signs you need to hire your first employee.

Turning down work

Turning down work that doesn’t align with your business’s goals or that doesn’t fit well with your schedule is fine. But when you’re turning down work simply because you don’t have enough time to get all of it done, it might be a sign that it’s to think about bringing in someone else to help.

If you’re knocking back contracts that you would take if you just had the time, then you’re under-resourced. Just think about the potential your business could have if you had an employee to help with the workload.

Time pressure

If you just don’t have enough hours in the day to fulfil everything that’s essential to the growth of your business – that’s a problem.

It might be that you don’t have time to reply to all those sales enquiries or client emails – and the more hours you work, the more tasks seem to pile up. Or, it might be that you never get time to leave your desk to seek out new opportunities or even visit your clients.

Letting someone help with basic tasks will free you to spend more time on important stuff.

Quality dip

In the world of business, your reputation is everything. And you’ve worked hard to the reach the point where you have a good reputation in your industry. Don’t spoil it by overworking.

If you’re finding that your quality is slipping, and customers or clients are noticing then it might be time to find another employee to assist you with the workload.

New opportunities

Financially, you may be buoyant – but do you have the flexibility to exploit new opportunities or explore new areas of making money?

If not, the moment might have arrived for you to delegate tasks and free up time to explore those opportunities that might otherwise be missed.

Here’s another thing to consider: might an opportunity lie outside your own expertise?

Hiring someone with different skills could make the most of an opening you might not be able to take advantage of on your own.

The admin is piling up

Are you finding that you just can’t get to all your admin and bookkeeping? It can be such a drain on the business owner trying to fit in administrative tasks between doing the work of the business. Chasing invoices, returning emails, filing contracts, it all takes valuable time away from the actual work you do at your business.

If you’re not finding time to get to all your administration, you might be ready for an employee to take the pressure off.

You need an expert

You’re wonderful at what you do, which is why your clients love you, but within your niche there is another job that people always need done at the same time. Perhaps you are a graphic designer and you spealise in branding. Generally a business will also need a website built around the same time and assistance with their marketing.

If you find your clients are regularly asking if you do certain type of work and you’re always knocking them back and referring them to another business, this could be a perfect avenue for you to explore with a new employee. Someone who is an expert in a complimentary field might be the perfect addition to your business.

You have no time for a break

If you’re finding you are forever putting off going away on a trip or having a day off, then it might be time to find some help. What would happen if you got sick and couldn’t finish your projects on time?

Having an employee gives you back-up for when you are unavailable, and it takes the pressure off.

You can afford it

Maybe you’re not Bill Gates, but you’ve crunched the numbers and you’re confident that you’re getting enough work regularly to sustain a new employee’s salary.

If you’ve reached this point in your business, it’s sure sign you need another employee to take some of the workload.

Greater freedom

As a business owner, you wear many hats. You’re both a specialist and the person who does all the admin. And as your business grows, the number of hats can grow too.

If you find yourself increasingly moving away from what first encouraged you to strike out alone – and you need greater freedom to reconnect with what you love to do – well, that might be a good reason to consider bringing someone in to help.

Final Thoughts

It can be a bit intimidating trying to decide if you’re ready for a new employee, but these signs can help you make the decision.

If you’re running your own small business and you want to explore ways you expand and level up, you can check out our small business courses here or get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help you find the right course for you!

9 Signs You Need To Hire Your First Employee