Over the past couple of months, the dream of a multi-farrier practice has started looking more like a reality with the schedule full several weeks out and days pushing the maximum of what I can do on my own. It has come into our consideration of hiring help, however; this isn’t a simple or quick decision to make. What does it look like to hire employees as a small business owner? What considerations are there?
Job description, pay, insurance, who to hire, how much help will they be, will the company continue to grow, can the company financially support another person, is it time to expand, taxes, benefits, qualifications for applicant. These are just a few of the many considerations that we face.
Some thoughts and tips for any small business owner looking to expand (or not).
- Make sure your company has the proper legal structure well before you plan to hire.
- Talk to your CPA about considerations they would advise.
- Speak with other successful businessmen, such as the mentors at score.org, about advice they have.
- Find and secure Workman’s Comp insurance before you need to hire.
- Know and write down the mission and vision of your company.
- Make sure you have established the core values of your company and work hard to establish the kind of culture you want your company to have with each employee.
- Know what the expectations for the position are and more importantly, write them down. Yes, write an actual job description.
- Write a policy and procedure manual. (Yep, they are boring, and as a small business owner that is probably one of the things you wanted to get away from, but they are important)
We will see what the future holds for Dixie’s, but we have seen some great things over the past year and look forward to serving our clients well in the future.