4 Hiring Tips for a First-Time Small Business Owner

No matter your industry, right now is a hectic time to be hiring employees. Many businesses have struggled finding people to work for them, and as a new business owner, building a solid team is more important than ever.

What can you do to ensure a smooth hiring process? How can you be certain you’re adding the right people to your team?

Don’t stress — we’re going to share four hiring tips for first-time small business owners like yourself.

1. Figure Out a Fair Wage and Benefits

One of the main reasons that employers are having a hard time finding people to work is that they’re not offering fair pay or don’t offer benefits.

We completely understand that most small businesses can’t compete with what larger companies can offer, however, all it takes is a little bit of research to find out what’s fair.

Figure out what people are being paid for jobs similar to what you’re looking for. Compensation also varies by city and state, so dive into the specifics of where you’re located as well.

Paying employees a fair wage should be taken into consideration in the first place, unless you plan on managing your small business yourself, with a spouse, or with other family members and friends you have arrangements with.

For you, fair pay and benefits translate to satisfied employees who work harder. This trickles down to create happier customers and a more successful small business overall. Who doesn’t want that?

2. Create an Employee Handbook

While you’re figuring out compensation for your employees, it’s a good idea to think about additional policies. Know exactly what rules you want your team to follow before hiring people, as this will cause less confusion and make your policies easier to enforce.

Some things to decide on are:

• Can you offer health insurance to eligible employees?
• Do employees get paid time off for vacation and holidays?
• Is there overtime for working over 40 hours per week?
• Will you offer sick time if someone isn’t feeling well?
• Are there opportunities to get bonuses?
• What’s the call off policy? Can employees swap shifts?
• What happens when someone is a “no call, no show”?
• How much of a raise are employees eligible for, and how frequently?
• Do you offer maternity and paternity leave?

These are some good questions to ask yourself when you’re getting started, and you’ll want to know the answers before you start building your team.

We recommend having a printed or digital employee handbook to give to your staff. This is helpful when onboarding new people, and if everyone has a copy of the handbook, they can refer to it themselves if they have questions down the line.

3. Advertise Jobs in the Right Places

Ask yourself this: Where are the people I would consider hiring?

Are they active on LinkedIn, or are they the creative type who prefer Instagram? Maybe they like to read the local newspaper, or frequent a crossfit gym.

The opportunities are endless for promoting your small business’ jobs, but as a first-timer, we recommend starting small.

If you’re already open for business, a great first attempt is posting flyers around your store. You could even stop into other local businesses and ask if you can leave some flyers with them, too.

Social media is another great place to start if you’re active on any platforms. Create some organic posts and add content to your stories to draw followers’ attention. People who love your brand and follow your channels may be thrilled to learn that you’re hiring.

Sometimes word of mouth and free tactics work just fine, but this completely depends on the type of small business you have, the city you’re in, and so much more. If the smaller efforts aren’t cutting it for you, and you can afford to spend a bit of cash on recruitment, look into paid options.

Local magazines, digital newspapers, and several other publications are typically happy to promote your open jobs. Additionally, you can add a budget to social media and show your jobs to more people there, too.

Sometimes you have to get creative when you’re in the hiring process. If you’re patient and think the journey through, you’ll be sure to get in front of the right people.

4. Make a Quick Hiring Decision

Nowadays, businesses are offering competitive pay and benefits to get the candidates they want. This means that, if you don’t move fast enough, your ideal candidate will get snatched up by a company that has more to offer.

People are also becoming more and more turned off by having to commit to multiple interviews — especially when, truthfully, most jobs only require a single interview.

There’s nothing wrong with asking all of the questions you have, providing scenarios, and having a great conversation with a candidate. If all of this happens in a single interview, that’s completely fair. But if you’re doing this over and over again and asking the candidate to come back a few more times, you’re going to burn them out.

Rather than irritate your top candidates, prepare everything you want to know about the person you’re interviewing in advance. Provide them with a schedule if you can, and let them know how much time the interview will take. Remember, these people have things going on in their personal lives, too — and they could even have another job!

If you’re nervous about judging someone’s character, get more people you trust involved. This way, you have some other opinions on the person you’re interviewing. Not every business makes perfect hiring decisions, and not every new hire works out. Trust your gut!

Hiring Employees for Your Small Retail Business

Hiring a team to help you manage your first small business won’t be easy. You have a lot on the line, and you’re passionate about everything your business stands for.

At the end of the day, the most successful companies didn’t have one individual leading the charge. You need a team to have your back! We hope these tips encourage you to take a breath, let your guard down, and find a great team of people to help run your business.

POS Nation is a small business, too, supporting over 10,000 retailers nationwide! If you’re in the market for a point of sale solution, schedule a live demo of our in-house software.