Is it Time to Hire Some Help?
Posted On: 2011-03-10
So business is booming and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that you either want to do to expand your business or have to do to keep it ticking along and making money.
Heck even just keeping your business and income ticking along is getting harder these days as others in this industry push the limits and offer new ... better ... different ... features and experiences for the people who might buy the products that you're selling. Just keeping up with those guys who are offering more is difficult ... especially if you've been running your business by yourself up until now.
At some point ... preferably sooner rather than later ... you're going to have to bite the bullet and hire some help and that can be really scary. Like most people who made a start in adult online you came into this business to escape all that bullshit that comes when you work with others ... or manage the work of others. It's easier to work alone ... you don't have to manage others ... you just have to manage yourself.
Unfortunately though the days when a guy or girl working solo in this industry could make their fortune is fading fast and for anyone coming in fresh those days have all but gone. These days you have to be prepared to start growing your business just as soon as you have a grasp of the fundamentals and then go on growing your business because that's what your competition is doing ... and you must keep up with your competition.
And growing your business means employing others to work for you. Sure, you may have already hired someone on a short-term basis to write a script or small program or to do some graphic design but now we're talking about hiring someone to work long-term for you ... someone who will work for you week after week and maybe even year after year.
Obviously there are going to be some traps that you could fall into ... traps that could destroy your business ... so it pays to think things through when it comes to hiring.
Of course you could do what many small businesses do and hire someone to work with you right there in your office. You could pay them a regular salary and maybe even offer them health benefits and there is much to be said for taking the route.
You can supervise your employee more closely and ensure that they really are doing the work that you set for them. You also get a level of loyalty that you might not otherwise get if your staff isn't working right there with you. There's also a level of interaction and support that you might get if your staff is right there with you.
But there's one big drawback to employing people right there in your office ... it costs more and if you're just a smalltime webmaster you probably can't afford those costs.
To beat the costs you can do what I do and employ people who work remotely ... from their homes. They don't have to be full-time workers and just so long as they get the work done that you set them they're free to do other things in their spare time. If they work remotely you don't have the same overheads because you're not providing them with work space, desks and equipment. When the people who work for you work from home they provide all those things themselves.
The down side is that you can't supervise them as closely as you can if someone is working right there in the office with you. You may be only paying them an hourly or piece rate for the actual work that they do but how do you know that they really are spending as many hours on a job as they say they are?
So you really do have to be careful about who you employ if you're going to have them work remotely and you have to be quick to cut them loose if they aren't working to your expectations... or you catch them over-charging you. If you keep them on then you're just wasting that money that you were trying to save.
Whichever way you decide to go when it comes to employing people ... whether you employ them in an office with you or remotely ... there's something very important that you need to watch carefully. It's not something about the people that you're employing ... it's something about you.
You've employed people so that you can grow your business ... you've employed people to do some of the grunt work so that you will have time to work on new projects. Just don't ever forget that!
If you've been working hard all by yourself it's very tempting to take that spare time you suddenly find you have when you employ someone and spend it doing nothing. Hey, you deserve a break ... you've worked hard ... and now you've got someone covering for you there's not better time to take that break.
It all sounds so reasonable but slacking off when you have an employee to cover for you is about the single worst thing that you can do. Sure you're worker or workers are now doing those things that you used to do but they need to be paid and you need to keep on putting food on your table so you need to keep on working.
If you've employed others to do the grunt work then you don't need to be doing the same thing that they are. Instead you need to take that time that has been freed up by employing others and invest it in developing your business even further.
If you don't go on using that extra time that you now have to grow your business then it's going to wither and die just as surely as it would have if you struggled on alone. The only difference is that it will die quicker when you employ others.
So if now's the time to start growing your business by employing others then go for it! Just don't make the mistakes that many do and think that you don't have to go on working hard just because you now have others to do the work for you.