One day the time has come: the number of your orders increases, your turnover rises and your workload takes on an extent that you can hardly manage alone. It's time to get reinforcements who can lend a hand. Because if you want to keep growing, you need to turn your one-man business into a thriving enterprise. And because that's not so easy, especially for lone warriors who have taken on every task themselves up to now, we'd like to give you some practical tips along the way. When is it time to hire employees? What do you have to consider? And how do you manage to hand over responsibility? We'll show you.
"Help, I can't handle my assignments by myself anymore." If you've had this thought several times, it's high time for helping hands. Because your own working time is infinitely valuable. As a self-employed person, you are the head of your company and responsible for numerous tasks: for acquisition, customer service, accounting, marketing and, of course, for your core business itself. But if you're constantly wasting time on little things that have to be done, but aren't relevant to sales, then you won't be able to make a living in the long run. be successful.
The solution is: Find responsible employees, free up your time for really important tasks and focus on activities that generate higher revenues. When it's time to hire your first employee is basically impossible to generalize. There is no one time that applies to everyone, or one turnover mark that absolutely has to be cracked.
It may be as soon as three months after your startup, it may be as late as three years, it may be much later. And even the amount of turnover required to hire employees cannot be given a blanket figure. It varies depending on the industry, location and other factors. It's more a matter of whether you generate consistently high revenues and whether the individual employee is profitable, i.e. brings in more money than he or she consumes.
And then there's another point that shouldn't be underestimated: it's not time for employees until your mindset allows it. Because while you were a specialist as a self-employed person, you have to rethink as an entrepreneur. Others are now responsible for the so-called background noise and repetitive processes. Instead, your part as an entrepreneur consists of networking, developing new products and strategic growth. While self-employed people and professionals work in the business, entrepreneurs work on the business. Are you ready to let go and delegate responsibility?
As you hand over the responsibility for your previous tasks, new responsibilities for your employees come along: you have to calculate the salaries of your employees and make sure that the income is always higher than the expenses. If you find it fundamentally difficult to hand over tasks or take on the role of boss, leadership training can be extremely useful. It also helps you to admit mistakes. Of course, you need to grow into your new role. Therefore, don't put yourself under pressure, but overcome the biggest hurdle, namely your mindset, at your own pace.
A good way to strengthen your mindset and test your entrepreneurial skills is to hire freelancers. Compared to permanent employees, they offer the advantage that you hardly have any obligations. Freelancers write invoices, the amounts of which you can declare as business expenses. You don't have to register freelancers or pay social security contributions, just transfer the invoice amount and record it in your accounting. You don't pay for vacation or sick days. And if you no longer need the freelancer's services, you don't have to continue employing him. Easy!
But freelancers have the disadvantage that they usually charge higher hourly or daily rates and can also terminate the cooperation with you at any time. In the worst case, you'll be left alone with a huge mountain of tasks again pretty quickly. In addition, you should make sure that freelancers are not self-employed, but have other clients besides you. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your tax advisor.
At the beginning of your self-employment, you need to learn how to organize yourself and your business. Once this process is complete and you have decided to get support, the next step is to define crystal clear tasks and processes. Hand over your work and learn to trust your employees! They may do the work in a different way than you do. That's not a problem, because what matters in the end are the results.
Of course, it's also perfectly fine if you choose to remain an independent sole proprietor and work operationally. You don't necessarily have to build a team. However, if you want to continue to grow and scale your business, then you can't avoid getting reinforcements in the long run. Because at some point you will reach your limits.
When it is time for the first employees, you decide exclusively yourself. Note that from this moment on you are no longer self-employed but entrepreneurial. And in this position you are not only responsible for yourself, but also for your employees, whom you in turn have to trust and hand over tasks to. Are you ready for this? If so, then take the plunge! Think entrepreneurial and take your business to a new level!
