Do you have your own business? Have you thought about hiring new employees?
You have been out of school for a few years and now it’s time to use all of that money you saved up to open up your own business- perfect!
Everything is ready to go and all you need is to hire someone- no problem, right? Well that’s the thing, spending money foolishly is the main reason many new business ventures never make it past the first year. I don’t want you to go broke because of a hiring mistake.
What are the biggest hiring mistakes?
Thanks to my entrepreneurship class, we looked at what goes wrong with a small business. It’s almost always : hiring!
Outlined below are a few hiring mistakes that could lead to your new business failing before it even gets off the ground:
Hiring someone as a favor.
An acquaintance or friend of yours is hurt by this current recession and it may seem like the right thing to do. You may feel like a good human being at night but when your new business venture struggles financially, how good will you feel?
Hiring someone to be general help.
It’s too much work for one person to try to run a business venture at first but only hire help for specific work, not just a general employee. You need everyone to have a specific role in your company.
Hiring someone just because you know them.
It may seem like a dream come true to be able to work everyday with a good friend of yours but how will your friend react when you order them around? Or if they mess up and you have to discipline them? Once the “honeymoon” phase of working together is over you will discover the bitter reality of working with a close friend.
Hiring for a job that you dislike.
So you’re a Psychology major and absolutely hate the thought of accounting. It makes perfect sense to hire someone as an accountant but do you really know what you’re paying for? Your lack of interest in the job could lead to you either overpaying for the work or not receiving the quality you desire.
What did the readers have to say about this?
Trevor wrote in with:
“I have a small business of 4 employees (including myself), and we hired a good friend of ours that really didn’t work out. It’s tough to have an “employer – employee” type of relationship when that person is your friend.”
Roger chimed in with the following:
“Good list of bad reasons to hire someone. The first and third seemed pretty obvious to me (both combine business with your personal life, which usually goes not bode well). The second and last ones wouldn’t have readily occurred to me, but they make sense; if you’re hiring someone for work you don’t like or as ‘general help’, the jobs are going to be more likely to go beyond what you originally intended, potentially costing you money.”
What are some poor hiring mistakes that you’ve made or noticed?