Is It Time to Bring in an Expert? When to Hire at Your Small Business

Ty Kiisel
Tue, 06 Aug 2024 06:54:00 +0000

As a business owner, it’s not uncommon to wear multiple hats. In fact, I've always thought of myself as the chief cook and bottle washer. That being said, there are some things I’m very good at—and others I could use some help with.

Whenever your business faces a growth opportunity, it’s natural to consider whether or not you need to hire someone with experience to help you. This could be in the form of a new employee, a consultant, or an outside firm or contractor.

From bookkeeping and accounting, to marketing, web development and sales expertise, there are service companies that can help meet your needs if you opt not to hire someone. This makes sense for a lot of small businesses.

Some estimates put the cost of hiring and ramping up a new employee at around $4,000, but more experienced employees could cost even more. With that in mind, engaging a firm or working with a freelancer could be a viable option. Either way, here are four questions to ask yourself to determine if it’s time to seek professional help.

1. Is there expertise I need, but don’t have?

It would be unreasonable to assume that everyone is a master of every skill required to run a business—although I’ve known some who thought they could do it all. It doesn’t mean you’re not capable, but at some point most business owners have to decide where it makes the most sense to spend their time.

I have a friend and associate who, after several years in business, decided he wasn’t the marketer he previously thought he was, and his time would be better spent focusing on his role as CEO, rather than CEO and VP of Marketing. He was a capable marketer, but he recognized there were things he didn’t know, and he needed someone with specific marketing expertise. He knew enough to recognize a talented guy he could hire—he opted to keep the skill in-house, rather than go with a contractor. He empowered his hire to build a marketing department that helped take his business to the next level, and was able to leverage that professional expertise into additional profits for the company.

2. Is there more to do than I have hours in the day?

A lot of small business owners spend their entire careers as sole proprietors who rely on freelance or temporary workers to get them over a particularly busy couple of weeks. That being said, most businesses don’t seem to be able to maintain the status quo indefinitely. If your business is growing beyond anticipated seasonal fluctuations, and it's becoming difficult for you to keep up, it might be a good time to consider bringing in professional help.

This is also a good time to bring new skills into your organization. Many entrepreneurs will evaluate their core strengths and look for people with complementary skills who can help the company grow and be more profitable.

3. Where does it make the most sense to spend my time?

It’s easy to get bogged down in all the minutiae of day-to-day business operations. When I was running my own business, I always put off the bookkeeping part of my business until the end of the day. I did that because it wasn’t what I loved about running a small business, and because there were other things I could do better.

Hiring an accounting firm, a freelance bookkeeper, or an employee to handle bookkeeping would have been a valuable resource for me. In hindsight, it just didn’t make sense for me to spend time in the daily ledger when I could have provided more value to my business doing other things. Although I had an accountant to do my taxes and quarterly reports, I should have hired a bookkeeper for the day-to-day accounting. It would have reduced a lot of stress for me and would have made the financial side of my business run a little smoother.

I don’t think I’m alone in how I used to feel about this part of running a business. If accounting is not your thing, there are a lot of freelance or part-time accounting professionals available who can help you focus your time on where you can provide the most value.

That being said, I have friends who felt differently; they loved the bookkeeping process so much (they enjoyed the daily input of data into their general ledger) they were slow to adopt computer software like QuickBooks. As your business grows, if you start feeling like you’re spinning your wheels doing things that may not be the most important things for you to do, you may want to bring in professional help.

4. Are customers unhappy?

No business is immune from the occasional unhappy customer. However, if you see an increase in the number of customer complaints, it might be time to consider bringing in professional help. Finding help with customer service, order fulfillment, or other operations-related roles doesn’t necessarily require that you hire a new employee. Depending upon your need, there are temps, contractors, and freelancers that can help you; there are also firms that offer highly qualified experts in almost every area.

Running a small business is definitely not for the fainthearted. As your business grows, there will likely be days when you miss being the only employee. Contractors and employees add a level of complexity that likely didn’t exist in the very early stages of your business. Nevertheless, growth can be exciting and can have its own rewards, with a little bit of professional help.