Episode Summary

Are you ready to hire team members to grow and scale your business, but don’t know where to start? Today’s episode of “Make Space for More” provides your blueprint!

In this episode, Melissa Swink discusses her best practices for hiring a team. She first shares her personal experience of how hiring a team has led to increased 20x revenue and 5x profitability, all while maintaining a weekly work schedule of 20-25 hours. She then provides a step-by-step guide for hiring team members, including how to create a job description, how to find quality candidates, and how to conduct interviews. Melissa addresses the importance of references and trusting your gut, and provides encouragement for business owners to take the first step right away. 

Key Highlights:

• Building a team is a critical step in growing and scaling a business.
• Hiring a team can lead to increased revenue and profitability without working more hours.
• Creating a clear and concise job description is essential for attracting the right candidates.
• Seeking out quality candidates through social media groups, networking, and direct outreach is more effective than waiting for applicants.
• Conducting interviews, checking references, and trusting your gut are important steps in the hiring process.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone, welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and in today's episode, we're going to continue breaking down step number four of the Make Space for More framework, which is building a team. And particularly today, we're going to talk about my best practices that I personally use when hiring my own team. So,

To set the stage for our conversation today, I want to acknowledge that building a team is by far the area of most resistance that I personally had when it came to growing and scaling my company and taking my business to the next level. It's something that many people in my network and even our clients struggle with as well. But I want to break this down for you so that it seems much more.

Feasible for you to do no matter where you're at, but then also more importantly help you understand why this is a critical step to growing and scaling your business and increasing your capacity to create more in your life whether that be serving more clients or Making more money having more time for yourself Whatever your more might be so what I can share with you today is that personally?

gained through building a team. My revenue has increased 20x and profitability has increased more than 5x. What has not increased in my business is the amount of hours that I work each week. Even now I work, I would say about 20 to 25 hours per week. I do not often work weekends or evenings. It's pretty rare when I do. If I do, sometimes it is more, it's,

I can say this, it's definitely more by choice. It's not because I'm buried and I'm trying to do all the things. Oftentimes it's when we're working on a project and I want to spend some heads down time in moving those things forward. It's completely my choice when I choose to work outside of my normal hours. And in our last episode, we talked about how you might begin to calculate what your return on investment might be when you hire or outsource.

and most importantly, what your time is worth. So just to recap our steps in the Make Space for More framework, if you're just joining in, in episode five, we talked about redesigning your role as the CEO of your company, getting really clear on what are the most important things that you need to be doing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis in order to drive your business forward, and then sort your to -do list and look at everything else. And we're working through this sorted to -do list.

in these episodes. In episode six, we decluttered the things in your business that are no longer aligned. This could be products or services that you're just no longer excited about creating or delivering, or maybe you found that they just aren't as profitable as you would like. We talked about, maybe you have clients who are not the best fit for where you're headed, or team members who just aren't quite at that point where...

you need them to be in order to continuing to grow and scale your company. Maybe there are groups that you've been a part of that just are no longer the right fit for you and so on. We're looking at, okay, what are the things that we just need to take off our plate completely? In episode seven, we talked about simplifying and automating the repeatable processes in your business. Why do we go there from designing your role to eliminating to automating?

because it makes the most sense to streamline and automate the things that are happening on a regular basis in your company and remove as much manual labor from the process as possible so that nobody is spending unnecessary time and energy on those tasks, whether it be you or you paying somebody else to do them for you. So once we had those things in place, in episode eight, we started talking about how much it's costing you not to hire,

and then also help give you some indications of what you might want to hire first. So now that brings us to today where we're talking about building a team. This is part two in step number four, the Make Space for More framework. And I am going to share my best practices for hiring team members. And really our goal here is to find the right fit so that you can uplevel your life and your business. Now all of this to say,

I am not an HR professional. I'm not an attorney. And so I'm just sharing some stories and some tasks that have worked best for me. But certainly if you have questions or if you're unsure about what some of the best hiring practices are for you and your business, your industry, in your location in the world, certainly reach out to a professional for guidance in those particular areas. So with that being said, the first thing that I want to

you to do before we start hiring team members is to look back at the list that you created in episode eight. So this is the list of things that you struggle to do yourself. Maybe you've got all of the technical aspects of your job and your business nailed down to a science, but maybe it's the content creation.

that you struggle with, or maybe you're really creative and you have the eye for serving your clients, but maybe the analytical and the numbers side of the business is a struggle for you. We want you to be working in flow as much as possible. We want you to be doing the things that you love and come naturally and easily to you. So things that you struggle to do, definitely great candidates for getting some outside help. Also tasks that you don't enjoy doing.

Just because you're good at something doesn't necessarily mean that you enjoy it or should be the one doing it forever and ever amen, throughout the course of your company. Also, take a look at tasks or projects that are continuously being put on the back burner. Like it's something that you know that you wanna do or should do, but there's just always something more pressing that comes up. These are all great candidates for other people to help you with. So when we take a look at these things,

If as your next step, I recommend creating a simple job description. Now I have a job description here in front of me that I used to hire my executive assistant last summer. And so I'm going to be referring back to this document as we go along here, but I can tell you this, it is a one page document. It includes at the top, a very brief description of the position that we're looking to fill, who they report to, a

about how many hours per week. And that's that overview section. The other section below that is who is a good fit for this type of position. So in here, I listed off some very specific characteristics or values that I think would be important for a role like this. So because hiring an assistant is often the first step that a business owner or certainly our clients look at hiring in their company,

I want to share a little bit of examples, a few examples with you here. So one of the aspects of this role that I thought was important for my executive assistant to have would be to are you a self -starter who can take full ownership of assigned tasks and projects? That, for example, is one that I included. Another one that I listed out, you are resourceful and willing to find solutions to solve problems. One more example here.

You are adaptable and willing to grow with our company. We're small business owners, so we know that our companies are small and lean and mean and agile, which means that we need people who are excited about the opportunities that are in front of us and are willing to go where we need the business to go. To a point, of course. I mean, we want people to be aligned with where we're headed, but we also want them to understand that this role may grow and expand and change as the business does.

So those are a couple of things that I included in terms of characteristics and values. Okay, some other things to think about here as well is responsibilities or results. So I also listed out some of the responsibilities that may be included in this position. So of course, this is gonna be tied directly to that list that you created. Here are the things that I need help with and list them out very specifically.

Or maybe there are certain results that you're trying to achieve, like to grow my social media following from A to B or X number of percent over the course of how many months, just to give you some examples here. So these are the things that you need help with. What I included in my executive assistant job description, daily email management was at the top of my list, just to spell that out crystal clear.

Following up with potential clients by email, and these are in no particular order. I'm just giving you some examples. Following up on failed client payments. Our client payments are processed automatically, but of course, every once in a while, a payment fails because somebody's credit card got hacked and they need to update their payment information or maybe a card expired, something like that. I want my assistant to see that, follow up with the customer and get that taken care of.

just to give you some examples here. Some more things that you might wanna touch on where they might not necessarily fit into a particular category on their own in a job description, but also indicating the frequency of this role. Are you looking for somebody to help you with a one -time project? Like maybe you have decided that you want to implement QuickBooks Online for your business you're tired of.

manually keeping track of receipts or tallying things in spreadsheets, for example, and you're like, I just need somebody to set up QuickBooks online and then I can run with it from there. Be very specific on what you're looking for. Is this ongoing work? Is this certain responsibilities that need to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis? You can indicate that out. Below the responsibilities list, I have the requirements list. So for me,

When I was hiring my executive assistant, for example, I indicated that this person needed to have at least two years of experience as a virtual assistant or similar role. Another example here for a requirement that I personally had was that this person had to be available to meet via Zoom during US business hours, approximately one to three times per week. I wanted this person to be able to...

collaborate with me in real time and work together, work with my team, join in on sales calls potentially so they can help me take some notes and create proposals, things like that. So I indicated specifically the requirements that I needed from this person. So requirements may include availability that you need. Maybe there are specific times of the day that you need support or maybe you need support for so many hours in the course of a week.

Maybe there are certain things that they need to have experience in. Maybe there's software that they need to have an at least basic or even advanced knowledge of in order to be successful in this role. And again, one of my best practices here, going back to the requirement of having at least two years of experience as a virtual assistant or similar role is that,

I have found that with all of the demands on my time and my energy, that I prefer to hire team members who have experience, related experience in the specific areas that I need support because I don't want to be training somebody from the ground up. I want somebody who has a basic knowledge and then I can build upon that knowledge that they have and basically just show them, here's how we perform this task at our company or here's the way that I approach projects like this.

but they can take that background knowledge and experience and hit the ground running much faster than me training somebody from the ground up. That's something important for me. And then lastly, what does the application process look like? If this person fits the criteria that you're looking for and they wanna be considered for the position, what are their next steps? What do you need from them?

Is it sending them, is them sending you an email with maybe some, a list of specific information sufficient? Do you have a Google form that you want them to fill out as an application? Do you want them to submit a portfolio of their work? Be very, very specific. So for me, I asked my candidates to email me with the following information, a proposal for their monthly services, including their rate, so I could understand,

Here's what they're expecting. Here's what working with them on an ongoing basis looks like. I asked them for two client references. I asked them for a link to either their website or social media pages, maybe their LinkedIn profile, something like that. And this is super important. And this is one of my number one tips for hiring people. I asked my applicants to send me a short introductory paragraph.

about what I should know about them. For example, maybe some information about their work experience, maybe their educational background, maybe even their personal interests, because at the end of the day, we work with people, we do business with people. So do we have some commonalities that would make working together more enjoyable or more personable? That's something that I always like. And there's a lot that you can tell from that introductory paragraph.

On the not so great side of things that you can tell from those paragraphs, are there lots of spelling errors in it? Does it look like they spent 30 seconds on it and wrote two sentences and gave you the bare minimum of what you're looking for? Or did they write you a novel and tell you everything that you never needed to know about them? These introductory paragraphs are very, very telling in terms of the person and the way that they present themselves.

But the number one thing that I want you to keep in mind here with this job description, don't overthink it. Oftentimes when I'm working with clients and they are coming up with a job description for the role that they need to fill on their team, they take a really long time to get this job description done. They work on this for weeks, if not months. And I don't want you to overthink it. I want you to spend maybe set your timer for...

45 minutes to an hour tops, maybe even less than that if you've done this before and you have a template you can work through and just get it done. Maybe when you get that first draft of the job description done, maybe just to double check and see if you're missing anything, send it to a couple of trusted people, have them take a look at it, maybe give their feedback and then move on to the next step, which is step number two, seek out quality candidates. Notice I didn't say,

post this everywhere on the internet and wait. I mean, actually seek out quality candidates. And here's where I do that. Here's how I do that. The job description helps me get really clear on what I need. But then I don't just expect that I am going to put a job description out there and the best candidates are just going to find it and submit their application and I'm done with that step.

I'm actually seeking people out and my team is helping me seek people out. So a couple of places that you could post this job description, social media groups, relevant social media groups. Maybe you are part of some groups on Facebook or LinkedIn, for example, whether it be relevant for your industry or maybe other professionals groups that are a little bit more general. If it's all right to post in there, if it doesn't violate any rules,

post the job description and it just include a note like, hey everyone, I have decided to hire my first executive assistant. Here are the details of the job. If you or someone you know is a good fit, please encourage them to apply or send this information their way, what have you, you get the idea. Posting in social media groups. Sending this to others in your network. So maybe there are people in your networking group or,

your business mastermind who would be willing to help you share this information with somebody that they think might be a good fit for that role. Also, another thing that I really love to do are to either send messages or book consultations with service providers who might be a good fit for this role. So this could look like sending this to specific freelancers that maybe you type in your LinkedIn,

graphic designer and then you're looking at some of your first connections, your second connections, level connections and can search there and maybe send them a message. Hey, my company is looking for some help with graphic design. Here's the job description. Is this something that you'd be interested in seeking out those freelancers or even companies who provide those services? So for example, if you're looking for a social media person,

Maybe doing some search. Maybe there's social media companies local to you, if that's important to you, or maybe there are people within your network, or again, doing some social media searches. Maybe there's people that you've connected with at different networking groups who provide social media services and they own a company that does so. Feel free to book a consultation with them. Again, bring your job description. So again, you have that clarity of what you're looking for.

and seek those people out. Don't just wait for the magical candidate to find your job description and apply. It can be more proactive. And so step number three is once you have reviewed any applications that have come in or looked at the recommendations that have come from other trusted people in your network, maybe...

people have responded to the inquiries that you have sent, maybe if they're a company or a freelancer, they have a website or social media profile that you've directly reached out to them, take a look at everything and select your top three choices to interview or do consultations with, depending on if you're hiring an individual versus a company for the work that you're looking for help on. So my number one tip here is just to keep it simple, go with your gut here.

and take a look at here's what looks the most promising. And then when you talk with these people, ask about their past experience. That's number one for me. Ask how they recommend or how they would approach the work that you're going to be doing together. That helps you paint a picture of how they work with their clients or how they work with people in the past and see if that is something that can help you gain some clarity on how this could work. Also,

talk about their rate or their contract terms, if they're an independent contractor, or if they're a company providing these services so that you get a good understanding of here's what it looks like to work with them. Also, very, very important here, I want you to make sure that you're asking for references, testimonials, and depending on what your hiring process looks like or the industry that you're with.

Maybe there's a background check or some other checks that need to be in place before you would move forward with hiring this person. This is really, really important to do your due diligence here. And then after you've had these conversations, after you've interviewed, after you've followed up with references or you've gotten the results of background checks back, just take a day or two to process everything and really listen to your gut because...

I don't want you to hire just based on experience alone. You could hire the person with 20 years of experience, but the conversation was a little bit challenging. Maybe it took some time for the two of you to establish rapport. Maybe their communication style and yours were just maybe connecting. It was just a little bit challenging. Maybe there's just something that...

that the two of you just weren't a great fit for, even though they have all the experience in the world. Or maybe you have met with a company and they would be your dream team. They would be your dream marketing team to hire, but their rates a little bit more than you were hoping to pay at this point in where you're at. I don't want you to just automatically negate them because...

they're just a little bit above your price range. I don't want you to hire based on any one thing alone. I want you to take a step back and figure out what is the best opportunity for me given where I'm headed in growing and scaling my company. And so once you have that clarity and you've made your decision, we're going to talk about the next steps in the next episode, which are my best practices for onboarding and cross -training new team members or getting more new companies onboard, new service providers onboard.

So that being said, please take a moment if you haven't already to subscribe and follow the Make Space for More podcast so that you can continue to receive practical tips and strategies for growing and scaling your business beyond you. I cannot wait to continue diving into onboarding and building a team in the next episode. So thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today and consider how you can build a team and leverage.

talented other people to help you grow and scale your business beyond you. We'll see you in the next episode. Have a wonderful day.