Should I hire employees? #ABC2020

If you are asking yourself, “Should I hire employees?” perhaps it’s time to ponder and look into options. You started all alone and everything was great. You still remember crossing fingers and hoping that things would work out.

Well, congratulations, because they did and your business is growing faster than you imagined. Now you definitely need help. Is it time to hire? Is hiring an employee to work for you a good idea or are there other options?

This, in fact is Day 7 of #ABC2020 – April Blogging Challenge.

Check your timing

Many entrepreneurs avoid hiring until the last minute, until they absolutely cannot do without help. The truth is when you wait for a long time to finally make that decision, it would be a burden on you to hire and train that employee while your attention should be on growing your business, not dropping balls and not having distractions at work. Or when you cannot absolutely afford to be distracted, you could get lost in the hunt for the perfect talent and the right person might take a long time to come along.

Would “employees” be a right fit?

Estimate the workload this new employee might have. Six months from now, will the workload still be there or are you just experiencing a mini boom for the season? Would you need more than one person to work for you? Is the employee needed to physically come in to work to man a store or hep out at locations? In this case hiring permanent or seasonal employees might be a good idea. You could also hire from employment agencies where the agencies take over a lot of the hiring burden.

Have you given “freelancers” a thought?

Majority of solo entrepreneurs these days prefer working with independent contractors or freelancers. The main reason being, payroll taxes, calculating them, withholding and remitting them to the Revenue Agency, are an tedious expense and a burden. Unless you’re in a brick and mortar business where you need to have employees physically come in to be working, a freelancer might be a good idea to hire from time to time.

What are the advantages of hiring a freelancer over an employee?

An employee would be committed to you unless they have a second part time job. Employees would depend on you to provide them with a certain number of hours of work every week. A freelancer on the other hand, accepts contact work from several businesses and is not committed to one. Freelancers are already trained to do tasks you need done. The freelancer can be hired for a few hours a week or just a couple of hours per month depending on your need.

Pay cheques versus invoices

When you hire employees, you are responsible to issue pay cheques to employees on time as per schedule. Also, you withhold payroll taxes and pay employment taxes to the government. Mistakes in calculation or failure to remit on time might be subject to penalties by the Revenue Agency. Freelancers are only paid per project or for work done. They issue invoices and you’d pay them like you’d pay your other bills. Freelancers also pay taxes but they are responsible to pay their own self-employment tax.

Benefits

Employees receive maternity leave, paid vacation, paid sick leave, etc. at your cost. To gain their loyalty you might even offer them medical benefits at your cost or at a shared cost. All these added together are a financial burden. But freelancers are not paid any such benefits, that’s why hiring one is easier on the budget and leaves you free from unnecessary obligations and other responsibilities.

Skill and Training

An employee perhaps had not thought about working for a business like yours. But a freelancer has devoted her life to doing the exact kind of tasks that you’re hiring for. Also, a freelancer is more creative because they have picked this kind of work as their niche. They probably have a lot of experience doing whatever you’re hiring them for. And for all you know they might bring in more creativity and a fresh mind into your business operations. A freelancer might be a thought partner in your business.

Flexibility

If a freelancer does not work out for you or if the freelancer decides to stop working for you, you could easily hire another because they have already been self trained and experienced to do the task that you have to offer. You do not need to train a freelancer all over again. A few guidelines and you’ll get the desired results. But in the case of an employee if one does not work out, you have wasted a long period of time, training. When you hire a new one, you start training them all over again.

So, freelancer it is!

A few of your tasks that can be outsourced to freelance virtual assistants are administrative tasks, social media management, content writing for your blogs and newsletters, bookkeeping, managing CRM, phone calls to book and confirm appointments, email and calendar management, the list goes on.

Click here to read my previous post on what you can outsource to Virtual Assistants. If you are in the market for a VA, please do not hesitate to contact me. If it only takes a few hours every month, you’ll thank yourself for hiring a freelancer.