Without employees, most self-employed business owners cannot further leverage their time and resources.  They cannot grow.  In my personal business coaching practice, I have found that the reluctance to hire employees is one of the biggest obstacles to small business growth and success.

Yet, the truth is that in almost all small businesses that want to become larger, the only way to grow is to hire employees.

Employees

Most small business owners are great technicians at what they do.  That’s what allows them to get a business started.  But, to grow the business they must bring in others to do the technician’s work in order for them to create processes to manage the business.

And, for a vast majority, they would rather do anything else, other than deal with employees.  Why?  There are many reasons.  But the underlying reason is fear.  Many of us small business owners have had bad employee experiences.  And, to make it even worse, sometimes we are the cause of the bad experience.

So how do you get in the right frame of mind to hire someone?

Employees Are Assets

It is easy to say, but you must start looking at employees as assets that will help you get to where you want to go.  But, for them to become assets you must have processes or systems in place where you can evaluate performance.

Without processes in place to evaluate performance it is virtually impossible to give an accurate reading on the value of an employee.  Most business owners are not interested in creating the process.

Also, they understand, and rightfully so, that there are a lot of things that can go wrong.  They are filled with fear.  Fear will kill dreams, desires and opportunity.

As a result, they have no incentive to grow.  As with one client of mine, maybe they are comfortable with 4 or 5 employees.  Even though this client’s marketing was enabling him to double his size he refused to do it.  His business was stagnating and morale was poor.

He saw employees as liabilities, as people to “baby sit.”  With that attitude the business wasn’t going to grow.

Employees And The Process

One of the most important keys to small business growth and running your own business is to embrace a good process for employees.  When you do that you can minimize the problems and maximize them as the valuable assets that they are.

I suggested to my client that he hire a human resources consultant to come up with job descriptions, policies and procedures and performance reviews.  He now has the system in place.  And here’s the key, he follows the system.  He knows what to do.

Also, he has humanized the atmosphere.  The employees know what to expect.  The fears of hiring, dealing with employee problems and firing are going away.

And, here’s the best part.  The business has grown and profits have almost doubled.  Have a good process for your employees and watch your business and life change for the better.