A Step-by-Step Guide to Hiring for Your Small Business Success

Whether you own a neighborhood coffee shop or a direct-to-consumer business, taking the leap and following your entrepreneurial dreams can be exciting and fulfilling. Unfortunately, some aspects of starting a small business can also be daunting and overwhelming.

Specifically, building an amazing team of employees can often be easier said than done. Thankfully, having some guidance around the process of building an amazing team of employees can make the process significantly easier.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to hiring for your small business success.

Step #1: Fulfill Legal Requirements

Before you start promoting open job roles and interviewing candidates, it’s crucial to fulfill all of the necessary legal requirements as a small business. A failure to do so could have dire consequences for your business — possibly even bringing your time as a business owner to a screeching halt.

While there are federal requirements for hiring employees, such as having an EIN and the proper authorization to legally operate a business, specific locations may have their own rules and regulations as well. To ensure you’re legally authorized to hire employees, be sure to check with state and city offices about the proper procedures you should complete to ensure quality industrial hygiene.

Step #2: Decide What Type of Employee You Intend to Hire

When you’ve reached the position in which you’re sure you need to bring on some extra help to operate your small business, it’s essential to decide what type of basis you want to hire an employee on. Depending on whether you’re hiring a full-time, part-time, or contract employee, the process of vetting and onboarding candidates will look different.

Unfortunately, each small business is different and there’s no silver bullet answer that applies to all small business owners. If you need a minimal amount of design work done, you may hire a graphic designer on a contract basis. If your business regularly requires a considerable amount of design work, it may be better to hire a full-time employee. Ultimately, it’s your duty to analyze your small business’s needs and hire accordingly.

Step #3: Craft an Accurate Job Description

Crafting an amazing job description is a key part of the hiring process — especially for small business owners like yourself. Without a proper job description that accurately reflects the role, you may find you have an influx of candidates that aren’t suited for the role.

In the job description, you’ll want to include information such as the duties and responsibilities, the salary range, and the schedule. In addition, it can help to describe your company’s values and the types of skills candidates should have that would make them a good fit.

Step #4: Promote the Job Role

This is one of the most important steps in the hiring process for small business owners. If you don’t properly promote and advertise the role, you won’t have any candidates to choose from. This being the case, it’s important to promote your job role in a number of effective ways.

Depending on your specific small business, different promotional tactics may work better. For a part-time role in a small town, physical flyers and signs in various places may yield more candidates. For a role requiring a specific professional skill set, online job platforms might be better suited for finding quality candidates.

Step #5: Interview and Vet Candidates

At this point in the process, it’s time to start getting to know your candidates. In the interview process, you’ll mainly be trying to gauge two distinct things. Namely, if candidates have the skills necessary to perform the job role and if their personality would mesh well with your company. Without checking both of these boxes, employees may be a hindrance to your small business’s success and negatively impact its business agility.

Some questions you might want to ask candidates include “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” “What would you do to solve problem x” and other questions specific to the job role. In addition to interviewing, be sure to contact references and see what previous employers have to say about specific candidates.

Step #6: Make Your Decision

Once you’ve interviewed a reasonable number of candidates and have some good possible employees to choose from, it’s time to make your decision. As with many other processes in small businesses, what you choose to look for in your new hire is unique to your personal vision as an entrepreneur.

To make this process easier, it can help to make out a list of your favorite candidates and what you think their strengths and weaknesses are. If you’re having trouble deciding between several key candidates, you always have the option of calling candidates back for another, more in-depth interview round.

Step #7: Onboard Your New Employee

Once you’ve chosen the perfect employee for your small business, it’s time to begin the onboarding process. This includes getting your new employee set up to receive payments and training them to perform their new role.

Different roles will require different amounts of training and only you can decide the proper course of training during the onboarding process. After properly training your new hire, it’s time to let them shine and help guide your business to success.

You’re Capable of Hiring the Perfect Employees

Though the process can seem daunting at first, hiring the perfect employees for your small business is well within the realm of possibility. By thoroughly following these steps, you’ll be able to build and grow your team in no time.

And, if you’re a little worried about the process — don’t be. Each time you hire a new employee it’ll be easier and soon you’ll be guiding an amazing team to small business success.