Common and Costly Hiring Mistakes Small Businesses Make
I have a lot of small business owners come to me because their business is in trouble. They don’t know what to do and they are frustrated. Sometimes the mistake that they have made is the way that they handle money, but a lot of the times the business is in trouble because of a mistake that they made when they hired their employees.
When I ask about their employees, there are four common mistakes that I find people have made which has resulted in issues arising within the company. These issues tend to become magnified and many small business owners don’t have the skills or desire to deal with such issues. This leads to a breakdown in the business.
• Hiring a Friend or an Acquaintance – The first hiring mistake you should avoid in small business is hiring someone you know. People that you know are going to be expected to be treated differently than the other people who work for you. They may expect that you are going to give them a better position, give them more money, more benefits, anything.
But even if it’s not your friend who is causing the problem, you may find your other employees being resentful because of the special treatment that your friend is receiving. It’s usually not a good idea to hire a friend or a family member because you lose all sense of accountability. It also has potential repercussions in your family life or with the friend outside of the workplace.
• Hiring a Person You Feel Sorry for- The second hiring mistake you should avoid in small business is hiring someone because you want to help them. You need to make sure that you are hiring the best people for the job. If the person that you hire is best for the job and you feel sorry for them, great! Otherwise, you are not helping that person or your business. You aren’t looking out for your business, and your employee may not like that type of work and you may be keeping them from another job they may like better.
• Hiring Someone to Do it All – The third hiring mistake you should avoid in small business is hiring someone to do everything, in other words, a jack-of-all-trades. It may seem like a good idea and a way to save money, but you may find that you are spreading the person too thin.
• Waiting too Long – The final hiring mistake you should avoid in small business is waiting too long before hiring an employee that you desperately need. Even though it may seem like you are saving money because you may be able to do the job yourself, it may end up costing you more, depending on what needs to be fixed. A good example is a plumbing problem. If you try and fix it yourself instead of calling a professional, you may end up with a larger, more costly problem than if you had called the plumber in the first place.
When you own a small business, you may think that making one of the mistakes above is a good idea, but it can really hurt your business in the long run. It’s important for you to remember these mistakes and avoid making them at all costs.
