A Guide to Hiring for Small Business Owners

May 20

Ever wish there were two of you to handle all the tasks and responsibilities on your desk?

That’s probably a good sign it’s time to hire!

Expanding your team, whether you’re adding your first team member or hiring your 25th employee, can be a complicated, exhausting process if you don’t have a specific system in place.

At Elevate, we love operationalizing and systematizing everything––and hiring is one of the areas where we shine!

Come with us as we share the signs it’s time to hire, the most common hiring mistakes we see, and our best tips and practices for hiring like a pro. We’ll even take you behind the scenes to show you how we streamline the hiring process for our clients so you can borrow what works best to use yourself!

Signs it’s time to hire

Balancing the need to bring in extra help and having the business to justify the expense of a new team member can be tricky, but putting off the need to hire for too long can lead to a loss of business, getting stuck at a specific revenue plateau, or serious burnout.

If you’re experiencing one (or more!) of these signs, it’s probably time to kick off the hiring process and bring in some additional help:

There aren't enough hours in the day. No matter how long you wait for things to “slow down," you're still consistently overworked and stressed out by your workload.
You're having to turn down opportunities to speak, travel, or participate in PD because you can't take time away from projects and client needs.
You (or you and your existing team) can no longer support the enquiries coming in.
You're missing family events or cutting into your personal time to meet deadlines.
Your team is reporting these same feelings or experiences.

Mistakes to avoid when hiring for small business teams

You don’t have an unlimited budget, so it’s important that every hire is strategic, effective, and successful.

A bad hire can cost you thousands of dollars and slow down your growth, so it really is worth it to put in the time and energy on the front end to ensure a positive hiring experience.

Hiring is both an art and a science –– and at Elevate, we've refined the entire process based on exactly what works and what doesn't.

Here are the most common mistakes we see that you should try to avoid:

Creating a generic job description

If you find yourself attracting applicants who don't fit your need, that's a sign you need to revisit your job description and make sure it is clear and accurate.

Not following a specific hiring process

You need to have a customized, repeatable hiring process that's flexible enough to adapt to different roles and needs. Winging the hiring process will almost always lead to an ineffective outcome.

Focusing only on hard skills

Yes, there are key competencies a candidate needs to have, but if you're only focusing on the hard skills and ignoring things like how the candidate communicates, thinks critically, and solves problems, you may end up with a skilled team member who can't work well with the rest of your team.

Ignoring company culture

If you want to increase retention and long-term success, make sure you hire someone who shares your brand's core values and fits into the company culture you've created.

Hiring for tasks instead of outcomes

The best candidates should demonstrate how they will achieve the desired outcomes of this role, not just meet the basic requirements of completing specific tasks.

Best practices: Hiring for small business owners

If you’re like many of our clients, you may know that the way you’re approaching hiring isn't working or resulting in the long-term, successful hires you want, but you don't know what to do differently!

Here are 3 of our tried and tested best hiring practices:

It all starts with your mission and vision.

If you don't have a clear mission and vision, it's impossible to identify and hire the best candidate for the role. We spend considerable time making sure you have a clearly defined foundation before we ever get into the intricacies of the role.

Always prioritize clear, consistent communication.

This applies internally, to the team doing the hiring, and externally, with any potential candidates. So many times a delay in the hiring process isn't communicated to the candidate, and by the time you're ready to move forward… they've already moved on.

Every stakeholder involved in the hiring process needs to be committed to ongoing, open communication throughout the process to reduce delays and make sure everyone is aware of what's happening at every step.

Improving your communication is one of the best ways to improve your overall hiring process!

Spend a lot of time and energy on the job description.

No matter how efficient and proactive your hiring process is, if you don't have an accurate, detailed job description… you're not going to attract the right applicants.

Think about more than just the required tasks for the role when writing your job description. We recommend thinking about the outcomes you want to see from this role in the next 3-6 months and clearly communicating those in the job description.

You should also clearly define the soft skills that will make a candidate successful, along with their hard skills and certifications.

Streamlining your hiring process

A flexible, repeatable hiring system will save you lots of time and lead to better hiring outcomes.

We asked our operational experts how they streamline the hiring process for our Elevate clients, and these are their best recommendations:

Choose the right system.
There are robust HR platforms that are perfect for businesses with multiple job openings at once, project management tools (like ClickUp!), or even customized GoogleSheet and GoogleForms. Choose what meets your business’s hiring needs and goals!
Train everyone how to use whatever system you set up.

Whatever system you choose, you’ll need to formally train everyone involved in the process so they can follow the steps and understand their responsibilities.

Training is a huge step that is often skipped when operationalizing a process, but it will only lead to more mistakes and people not using the system you've worked so hard to set up.

1. Ask similar questions at every stage of the hiring process.

We ask the same questions on our application, in our video screening, and in the 1:1 interview stages of hiring. This allows us to see how consistent candidates are in their answers and how their critical thinking skills work in different scenarios.

2. Give yourself a longer hiring runway than you think you need.

Building in extra time for the hiring process helps you avoid making a rushed decision based on the imminent needs of a role. Starting early and having a longer timeline will also keep you on track when there are inevitable delays or issues that pop up on your side or on the candidate's side.

Need help with hiring for your small business?

Our team of operational experts can take the work off your plate!

We’ll build every step of your tailored hiring process to attract the right person and make it easier for you to make an excellent hire every time.
We can create: