Growing Pains: From a One-Woman Shop to Full-Fledged Company
Kathy Wiley is painfully aware of the complexities of staffing up a new small business. For the first four years of running her San Francisco-based artisan chocolate business Poco Dolce, she remained a one-woman operation: She made the product, packaged it, marketed it, and even delivered it personally. When she finally did hire employees, things didn't get easier -- at least not immediately. "The first year when you hire staff is still pretty painful," she says. "You still kind of have to grow into that."
Wiley did grow into a bigger team, but then the economy intervened in 2008. "We hired, we geared up, I raised my head, and realized that it wasn't going to be the year that we wanted it to be," she says.
Watch the video to find out how she pulled through the recession:
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When you are ready to staff up, make sure those first few crucial hires count. Here are a few tips from our Business Owner bloggers:
Evaluate candidates on what they've done; not what they claim they will do. The past is probably your most reliable indicator of how an employee will perform at your company. So use the interview as opportunity to dig into specific scenarios, what the candidate did, and how things turned out. Try behavioral questions like, "Tell me about the last time your workday ended before you were able to get everything done," or "explain the toughest decision you've had to make in the last six months."
Suss out victim mentality. You know the type: When something goes wrong, this kind of employee immediately looks for someone else to blame. Avoid these candidates all together by asking the classic question, "Tell me about the last time you made a mistake." Then make sure you weed out victims, victims-in-disguise, and people who tend to give answers that are too safe. Here's the answer you'll really looking for.
Don't forget to ask one final, sneaky question. This one seems innocuous but it's one of the most effective ways to gauge a candidate's work ethic and sense of responsibility: "How soon could you start if we do decide to offer you the job?" Here's why the person's answer tells you a lot about what kind of employee he will be.
What were your biggest hiring challenges when you started up?