DYFConf Notes: Allan Branch – When/How to Hire Employees and Subcontractors

Situations are different, companies are different.

When do you hire?

• don’t grow for growth’s sake
• hire if that person can push closer to whatever is success

The business is built to be what you want it to be

Why do we hire?

• to do a job better than you can
• free up time to do things that create users/customers
• to do jobs you don’t like
• hire IF you can afford it. Will it directly or indirectly make us money?

The natural tendency is to hire people that are not as smart as you. To make you feel important. Fight this feeling.

Hiring will change your job for better or worse

Who to hire?

“If you don’t get your shit done, you’re gone”

“We pay you enough to keep you alive… barely” lol

Hires come from people who follow your blog or twitter, friends of friends, open source projects who love their craft

How we hire

hiring is expensive, hiring a toxic person hurts the team.

“Hire people not on who they are today but who they can become” – Allan’s Dad

Gone are the days where people work for a company for 20 years and get a gold watch

You have to learn to spot people and be willing to teach them.

Hiring Developers

Anyone who is any good at their craft must have opinions on how it should be done.

Give them a project to work on. Getting them to ask the right questions. Out of 10 people taking a test they’ll hire one.

Hiring Customer Support

“What is your favorite thing online and tell me how to buy it.”

Don’t care about past employers. Can they survive our culture?

Are they detailed oriented and give instructions?

Are they obsessive about emails? Just delete emails and see how they follow up. They’re going to have to follow up with customers the same way.

Further Reading:

• Should You Grow Your Freelance Business & Start Hiring Employees?
• How we Hired our First Customer Advocate
• Kai Davis’s Notes on Allan’s Talk

Site: https://lessaccounting.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/allanbranch