Time To Hire

Get the help you need to grow your business
by Todd Carter

EDITOR'S NOTE:
This is the second in a three-part series on growing your home-based business. Next month we'll look at growing your technology to accommodate your new staff and expanding customer base.

Should I hire? it's a question many home-based business owners ask themselves when faced with a glut of work and a steady stream of clients. And as your business grows beyond a one-person operation, the answer is a resounding Yes.

But there are many questions to answer before you decide to staff up. Do you need full- or part-time help? Should you hire independent contractors or temporary workers? And once you have them onboard, should they work in your home office or in their own? And the issues don't end there.

Hiring isn't just a matter of placing an ad and filling an open slot. You'll need to tap several resources to recruit qualified workers, develop job descriptions and a list of responsibilities, provide benefits, and purchase equipment. And with the current low unemployment rate, you'll have to offer enough perks to compete for choice candidates.

Recognize the Need
Before you begin the search for an employee, first decide what you need and whether you can afford it. Will adding an employee improve your bottom line?

"You have to determine whether you really need to hire somebody or just need to clean up your act and become more efficient," says Alice Magos, a small-business consultant with Riverwoods, Ill.-based business book publisher CCH Inc. If you're a graphic designer who's buried under assignments, for example, you can't just hire a clone of
yourself, she says. Instead, consider getting administrative help to free your time for the creative work. And that doesn't necessarily have to be a full- or part-time employee, says adds.

Consider hiring a temporary office assistant during a busy period, or a specialist to help you complete a difficult project--rather than committing to a full- or part-time worker. Although bringing in an independent contractor may appear costly in the short term, in the long run it might be less expensive than providing a salary and benefits--especially when business slows down.

If you do opt to hire a full-time permanent employee, though, be prepared for some additional work and expense, says Magos. You'll have to find and interview prospective applicants, check references, and train the person you hire. Then there are the added costs of payroll, benefits, equipment, and other expenses that home-based businesses rarely consider before hiring, she adds.

Attracting Talent
Once you've determined you can afford to hire, the next step is convincing skilled candidates to work for you. "It's hard to get help these days," says Bobbi Moss, vice president in the Scottsdale, Ariz., office of Management Recruiters International (MRI). "Your competition is just enormous because the employment situation is so good."

Since early 1999, Moss has seen a sharp increase in the number of home-based businesses hiring employees. "It's a combination of growth and recognizing that you have to hire talent," says Moss, who's watched hiring trends for the past 17 years.

So how do you convince that top-notch candidate to work for you? Perks. First, employees need to know that even though they'll be working in your home, they'll be in a business environment, says Moss, and won't be "licking envelopes or working at your kitchen table or in an unfinished basement. The professionalism has to be
there to attract the type of talent you need to grow your business."

When recruits are told that a prospective job is located inside someone's home, "right away, typically, their guards go up," says Moss. Many of her clients have dedicated office space for employees, whether it's in a guest house, a finished basement with a separate entrance, or guest rooms in the home. Having discrete office space
works in the employer's favor when hiring, she says. She and her colleagues won't start matching candidates to a home-based position until they've visited the office first.

What do they look for? Moss and her colleagues make sure the workspace is comfortable, and that employees have the right tools they need to work effectively. "You can't bring an employee into your home and expect a person to crank out work when there's one computer and you both need it," she says. Make sure you have the
proper equipment--fax machines, computers, multiple phone lines--before adding to your staff.

Besides an efficient setup, employees are also looking for additional benefits, says Moss: Will you pay full medical benefits? How much vacation time do you offer? And if you're willing to hire teleworkers, she adds, be prepared to pay for tech resources--computers, high-speed Internet connections, additional phone lines, fax machines, and so on.

Think Globally
The good news, of course, is that employers are no longer limited to the pool of workers in their immediate area. Home offices can now tap into a national talent bank to find the most qualified applicants for their businesses.

"Don't be limited by geography," says Terry Brock, CEO of Orlando, Fla.-based Achievement Systems Inc., a workstyles and productivity consultancy. Brock encourages home-based businesses to look beyond their local communities, whether it's for full-time employees or independent contractors.

"Carefully select what's right for you," he says. This means hiring qualified people regardless of location--and getting the right technology to work effectively and communicate with them.

Jim Miller is also a big advocate of the virtual office. As general manager of US West's Extended Workplace Solutions, he believes the office is anywhere you and your employees are located. Miller encourages employers to match their employees' home office technology with their own as much as possible.

For starters, Miller recommends common Internet connection speeds. If you're using a DSL connection, for example, and an employee is using a 56Kbps dial-up connection, "that's going to create a delay in communication and frustration," he says. Miller recommends that everyone in a virtual office have at least an ISDN (128Kbps) hookup to the Internet. Home business owners and employees should also use the same operating system and software to eliminate incompatibility issues, adds Miller.

Technology Is Key
If you decide to hire a virtual employee, you'll have to carefully weigh the benefits and drawbacks of this long-distance relationship. When an employee works on-site, for example, you have immediate access to that person; you don't have to wait for e-mail or a fax to be delivered. With a virtual office, you must rely more on technology to communicate and collaborate.

Several online tools help home-based business owners provide inexpensive or free ways to communicate with far-flung employees. Miller advocates the use of online meeting and collaboration programs such as Microsoft's NetMeeting, which features a whiteboard as well as video and audioconferencing capabilities.

You'll also want to ensure every employee has access to faxes, whether it's through a dedicated fax machine or online services like eFax.com, which lets you send and receive faxes through your e-mail software. "E-mail and fax are going to be critical," says Brock. "You want to be able to [access] that from wherever you are."

In addition to HotOffice (www.hotoffice.com)--an online tool for sharing documents and calendars and holding real-time online conferences--Brock also recommends using Yahoo Calendar (which he uses), so employees have access to the company's schedule online. And Internet storage services, such as netdrive.com and i-drive.com,
are crucial for document storage and sharing.

Brock also suggests using Webcams for videoconferencing. The live images can be slow, especially when using dial-up access, but they're invaluable in gauging whether your remotely located employees are happy or frustrated, he says.

Despite the resources available, Brock sees a limit to technology. It can't, for instance, take the place of regular, face-to-face meetings with employees. "If they live on a mountain and you live on another mountain, and you never see each other, communication can break down," Brock warns. "Some things happen magically when you
physically see someone. You learn a lot about that person."

HIRING THE RIGHT WAY
Name: Susan Wilson
Company: Executive Strategies Inc.
Location: Newton, Iowa
Although Susan Wilson depends on e-mail, faxes, and the phone to communicate with her two employees, she's a big proponent of face-to-face meetings. After all, she says, technology can go only so far in helping a home-based business owner communicate with off-site employees--whether they work nearby or across the country.

Five years ago, the author, speaker, and consultant decided to hire a marketing professional for her Newton, Iowa-based company, Executive Strategies Inc. Sharyl Fosenburg works 30 hours a week from her own home office about 12 miles away; she books speaking engagements and handles travel arrangements for Wilson.

Staffing Up
A year after hiring Fosenburg, Wilson also hired Fosenburg's mother, Shary Branderhorst, to work 20 to 30 hours a week as an administrative assistant. The two employees live about a mile apart.

Even with such short distances between her home and theirs, Wilson uses the phone, e-mail, and fax to communicate with them. Which form of communication she uses depends on the employee: While it's
convenient to send e-mail and faxes to Branderhorst, marketing her business requires greater interaction with Fosenburg via phone and in person.

This system works, Wilson says, because they've developed good communication and interpersonal skills. "We work effectively and offer a high level of quality to our clients--despite being in three different offices," she says.

Keeping the Peace
So how does Wilson manage to keep her employees happy and her business running smoothly? First, she pays for many of the costs both employees incur in their home offices. For example, she provided Fosenburg with a copier and pays for its maintenance. And she spends about $130 each month on Fosenburg's phone and fax expenses. She also reimburses both employees for office expenses.

Both Fosenburg and Branderhorst visit Wilson's home office about twice a week, and she tries to have two-hour, face-to-face meetings with them every three weeks to discuss work issues. While that's convenient because they live only about 12 miles away, Wilson is confident things could run just as well if they all lived hundreds of
miles apart.

That might require semiannual, two-day retreats and more use of technology, such as video or audioconferencing, she concedes. "But I do believe that we would be able to make it work," Wilson adds.

LEARNING TO CRAWL
Name: Ian Foster
Company: Bevinco
Location: San Diego
In Ian Foster's business, bellying up to the bar is a daily routine. But when it comes to hiring employees to help him expand his San Diego-based inventory control business, Bevinco, Foster has often foundered.

He runs two franchises out of his one-bedroom apartment, performing beverage audits for bars and restaurants. The work involves making weekly visits to those businesses, and reconciling differences between sales reports and the actual amount of liquor, beer, and wine dispensed. Any variations may indicate theft or poor employee
training.

It's a high-tech business that uses barcode scanners, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and electronic scales. Foster needs employees who also work out of their own homes and can learn the technology quickly, while focusing on the details of customer service and audit reports. But sometimes that's a tall order.

Small Steps
About 18 months after he started the business, Foster realized he needed help and hired his first employee. But he broke a cardinal rule of hiring: He brought a friend onboard, without interviewing other candidates.

It worked well for about 10 months "and then it started to fall apart," Foster recalls. "It took me probably another four months before I realized how badly it was going and fired him."

Just a month later, he hired someone else, based on a colleague's referral--again, without interviewing other candidates. That employee lasted just eight months. After two failed attempts at hiring, Foster began reflecting on the structure of his business. "[I realized] I was asking somebody to wear too many hats," he says.

So Foster changed his tactics. He created a job description and a list of responsibilities, deciding that employees would visit the bars, weigh the bottles and kegs, and send him audit reports. Foster would handle all client presentations.

Lessons Learned
Since restructuring, Foster has managed to successfully hire a full-time employee--and is seeking a second. Foster outfits each employee with the necessary hardware and software at a cost of $6,000 each. He also provides benefits in addition to a full-time salary.

Each unsuccessful hiring attempt cost Foster valuable time and money. At one point, he had to enlist the aid of another business owner to cover several of his clients.

"This is embarrassing to me because I did everything wrong at first," he says. "But that's how we learn, I guess."

(C)1998-2008, Todd W. Carter