Who To Hire For Each Stage Of Growth As You Scale Your Business

A key to growth is knowing who to hire at the different stages of growth. This is a question we often get asked and it’s helpful to break it down into the different levels we see as people build their team and concurrently build their revenues. However, as you build your team, you also must build those all-important systems… and that starts at the beginning with just you.

Growth Stage Level 1: Just You 

In the beginning, it is often just the Owner wearing all of the hats. This is where building a base foundation is vital to being able to hire and explain to future hires the key elements of how you want things done.

For instance, file naming and file organization are critical to making sure everyone’s save files are in the right place the first time. How we handle calendaring and e-mail are also greatly important in giving structure and making sure people do the right things at the right time.
Having clear general systems that guide you on day-to-day operations and how you want things done will not only create a streamlined process for yourself but lay the framework for someone else as they come in.

Growth Stage Level 2: Building Your Team (2-4 Team Members)

As soon as possible you’ll want to hire an Assistant who at this stage of growth might wear many different hats as they help you. They may help you with your e-mail and calendaring, but also help you with clients and Marketing.  
 
As you start to bring on additional team members, another key member might be a Marketing Assistant, so you have someone consistently doing the marketing and getting the word out there of what you do and who you love to work with.
As you get busier and busier, you’ll want to build out those financial systems and make sure you have a good Bookkeeper onboard, so you have a good money management system.  
 
Finally, a key person as you grow fast is to bring on a Client Happiness Coordinator who can do all the things the owner wishes they could get to but doesn’t have time. This person can ensure the company goals of following a client through their entire customer journey is a success. They are able to reach out to clients to ensure everyone is happy and to cultivate those relationships. This type of back-end marketing is vital to the entire company from creating low-cost highly effective marketing which will create long term relationships with raving fans sending you referrals to ensuring consistent customer retention.  People will always remember how your company made them feel and a Client Happiness Coordinator for just 5 to 8 hours a week can do incredible work to help you touch each client. (Business Owners: interested in getting this job description, reach out we are happy to help!)

Growth Stage Level 3: Growing Your Team (5 to 9 team members)

At this point you definitely need strong systems in place.  Not only will these systems make it possible for you to delegate effectively, they will also equip your team for productivity and success.
 
Depending on your type of business and the volume of work you do, a Billing Clerk may be a necessary add to ensure that we always get invoices out and money comes in and we get paid on time. This is just good money management, and the person will pay for themselves.
 
We also will be building out our admin team and the admin systems manual will be important for having clarity on all of the back-office duties and how to get the reporting done. Data becomes vital at this level and ensuring that your admin team knows how to obtain the data organize it and provide you with the data you need allows you to lead with confidence.
 
At this stage you’re hiring many people and having solid hiring and onboarding systems are also very important to not only increase productivity but also establish high employee morale. Especially if you plan to grow further this becomes a vital element that too often gets pushed off until later growth but really should be put in place as soon as possible so we can onboard each team member to be productive and confident in their role as soon as possible
 
Finally, you’ll continue to hire additional people to help you with your core services that you provide. This will differ by industry, but we want to make sure that we can service our clients in a timely and professional manner and that the owner isn’t dragged into the workload each and every day.

Growth Stage Level 4: Scaling Your Team (10 plus team members)

At this stage you’ll be beginning to build out dedicated teams with the sales and marketing departments and crafting systems to ensure healthier growth. Often the owner continues to do sales but a Marketing Coordinator for even 20 hours a week can be instrumental in getting a dozen plus medians off the owner’s plate. A Marketing Coordinator’s job is to organize all the different vendors and ensure that your ideas become implemented, and all the doers do their job. 
As you continue to grow, you will start to build out the sales team first with the Client Intake Specialist then a Client Engagement Specialist (salesperson). These individuals will work with the Client Happiness Coordinator you have already hired to ensure customer success.
 
Your marketing will continue to evolve per your growth efforts and if you choose to continue your growth plan you will find that hiring a Marketing Director may be on your horizon as you develop future leaders for your company.
 
In terms of servicing your clients a Case Manager that can project manage and help with the workflows and workloads of your business can increase your profit margin by 5 to 10%.  At the larger stages this becomes even more important.
 
There’ll be other part time or contract positions such as a Copywriter an IT Technician and perhaps a Controller to oversee specific elements of the business and ensure that you are a high performing business entity. 

Hiring Process

Once you know who to hire, that brings us back to crafting a strong job description with key metrics for how they will do their job. This allows you or your executive team to have a greater success rate in finding the right person to fit your company culture. Your ad is what will bring in the right candidates so you can vet them through your interview process and your testing. Take time to hone you ad.

By taking these important steps you will ensure that your onboarding process will be even more effective so you can bring in the right person for the right job and not lose momentum.
Growing a business is great, but growing in a strategic fashion by bringing in the right people at the right time makes all the difference for a smooth growth trajectory.