Hiring Your First Employee
Written by Garret Froese from Froese Corp Group,
I’ll never forget making the decision to hire my first employee. It was a combination of excitement for future growth and the fear that I may not make enough money to pay them. Looking back on that decision now, I can confidently say it was the right thing to do – I would not have been able to scale my business into what it is today without the help of others.
With that said, knowing what I know now, I would have done a few things differently. My best and most honest advice for hiring your first employee? Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA)!
I don’t know about you but when I was first introduced to the concept of a VA. I immediately began to think about the times when I’ve received phone calls from an individual that was obviously from outside of the country and with a thick accent, broken English, and poor phone connection quality.
Naturally, my first thought was to reject the notion of having a VA because I wanted a higher level of quality and professionalism for my company. However, I soon learned that there are many high-quality VA candidates to choose from with excellent communication skills and strong Internet connections to make high-quality connection phone calls; so much that they could call you from halfway across the world and you’d think they’re calling you from next door.
What tasks can you give to a VA? That’s easy – literally any task that can be done behind a phone or a computer. These tasks can and should be handed off to a VA. Start with administrative tasks – think of those boring and tedious jobs that you really don’t want to do but need to get done nonetheless. This way, instead of sitting behind a computer doing low-value tasks, you can be out doing high-value tasks like finding deals, raising money, and networking with others.
The main advantage to hiring a VA is the comparatively low hourly wage. For example, a position that I used to pay someone $20-$24/hr in Canada can be done by a VA for $7-$8/hr (or even less, depending). I even offload my bookkeeping and social media to VAs. Another major advantage I’ve found with VAs is the high level of motivation – it is a very competitive market for VAs, so they naturally want to impress their employer in order to secure long-term employment.
The main disadvantage I’ve found is that some of my VAs live in rural communities in the Philippines and as such their Internet connection quality can be dismal. In fact, when typhoon season hits, I can expect that there will be a day or two every few months where I don’t hear from them at all because the Internet is down for the entire community. Another disadvantage is their hours – in order for someone halfway across the world to work regular business hours for us they’re probably working the night shift. However, many VAs in these countries are used to working the nightshift as it coincides with North American business hours.
In conclusion, start small but do something – even if you hire someone for 5-10 hours a week, get a feel for it, and it’s really not going to cost you that much. You’ll soon realize the massive benefits of getting your time back, which can help you get the growth you’re looking for.