Your team is the face of your company so talking about it can be stressful. We’ve been talking a lot about our team and team members over the past few weeks and months as our business continues to shift and grow. We’ve changed up some of the roles of our team members, added to or revised their individual roles, and are currently looking for another new team member.
Growing our team has required an immense amount of trust and a multitude of difficult conversations. Coming to the conclusion that we need to bring on additional team members is never an easy decision and one that leads to asking a lot of questions. Each time we’ve considered adding a new position, we’ve had to ask our selves the same serious of questions:
- Do we have enough work to add another person?
- Will this position grow?
- Are we offering a position that anyone would want?
- What characteristics are we looking for in a new team member?
- What is their role going to look like?
- How will this impact our business?
- What will my role look like and what new responsibilities will I have as a business owner?
You have to determine within your own business whether adding a position or growing your team is the right step for you. Adding a new position can seem appealing and exciting but with a team comes a huge new set of responsibilities and outcomes that can impact both your business and personal life.
We have gone through the process of adding a team member several times now and still have not perfected the process. However, we have learned a lot along the way and shared a few of those lessons in todays episode:
- Adding a team member starts with a a mental shift. Abandoning the “I can do it all” mentality can be incredible challenging and requires a great deal of trust in order to allow someone else to share in the responsibility.
- We’ve reached our applicants through a variety of methods including social media, indeed.com, our big sign, and our website. We’ve also used some non-traditional methods to customize our search. When we were looking for our first lesson instructor we contacted local music colleges around graduation time to inform them of our new position.
- Crafting our vision for our team and revising as we go have been essential in moving forward. We have revised roles and continued to sculpt our team as we go based on what we have already learned and continue to learn every day.
- Deciding what we want to specialize in or want to be known for has helped us to find the right clientele and teachers. We have limited our services to a select few so that we can focus on highlighting them
- Spending time with our team members and figuring out what their specific skills and hidden talents are so team members can do what they love and enjoy.
- Keeping an open dialogue so we can all grow together. We try to show our team members that they are valued by having an open door policy, sharing experiences with them, and talking regularly. We try to have a positive attitude throughout our office and be proactive in solving issues as they come up.
No matter where you are in your business, determine what the best fit for you is in the moment and know that it can always change.
Until Next Time,
Katey and Rachel
