What Personnel Resources Do You Need?

hHi Folks,

Some more ideas based on what I learned at Mike Filsaime’s 2007 Figure Business Workshop.

At some point everyone growing a business needs to address questions like:
• How big do I want to get?
• How fast do I want to grow?
• How far can I go on my own?

While there is no question that many people can get a lot done working on their own, it’s just as clear that – at least in most situations – you can do much more and faster if you’re working with others.

I do remember seeing a TV movie recently – I can’t remember which one – where a private eye insisted he was better off working alone: it’s less messy and you don’t have to worry about anyone else’s safety. Of course, there was a character who tried to prove him wrong, and, in the end, the two of them probably solved the case faster than the PE would have on his own.

Mike Filsaime tells the story of how Rich Schefren convinced him that he needed to hire a staff and move out of his home office. Mike protested – recalling his days as an automobile dealership manager — that he didn’t want what he thought would be the “grind” of a staff. Rich told him, “Mike, it’s not that you don’t want to work outside your home; you just don’t want to work for anyone else.” With that realization, Mike was able to make the move – and has never regretted it.

If you’re just starting up, you probably can’t afford to hire anyone just yet. Perhaps you can find people to collaborate with; people whose skills complement yours. Before you start looking for people to work with, think about the extent you need someone to work with.

Multiple options may be available for each need:

Why You Need Someone To Work With	Relationship(s) To Consider
To bounce ideas off	Partner, colleague, friend
To generate ideas you feel comfortable executing	Partner, colleague, friend, client
To do things you don’t know how to do or can’t do well	Vendor, partner, employee
To do things you prefer not to spend your time on	Vendor, independent contractor, employee
To do things that are not the most effective (and financially rewarding) use of your time and skills	Vendor, independent contractor, employee
To do specific, well-defined tasks that are necessary to the business, but won’t generate the revenues you need to sustain or grow it	Vendor, independent contractor, employee

Employees could be full- or part-time, permanent or temporary and some could be interns from a nearby college or even people who may have been successful in another field and want to learn your business.

If you use a vendor (an established business) or an independent contractor (often a solopreneur or a very small business), you may have less control and the relationship may tend to be more temporary, but you avoid other potential issues such as payroll taxes, benefits and potentially greater capital risk.

Clearly, you can’t do everything by yourself – and if you try, it will slow you down. So decide which kind of outside resources will give you the greatest leverage, and acquire those first.

To figure that out, it helps to have a good plan in place.

Here is what you need to do to create a plan and have a basis for finding the resources you will need:
1. Develop a vision for your business: This is a thrilling, attention-getting statement of your dream – where you see your future and how it will unfold.
2. Write the mission statement: Why the organization exists and how your vision will be achieved.
3. Articulate your strategic goals: These are the key choices you’ve made about what you will accomplish over the next few years. They reflect your core values and core purpose.
4. Specify your near-term goals: These are what you must accomplish in the next six months or so.
5. Create your action plan: For each goal define the key steps and for each step spell out: what, how, who, when and at what cost. Sometimes it may be useful to add why and where.
6. Identify the skills required to implement each section of the action plan.
7. Specify the skills you have and which ones you will acquire (indicate how) in the given time frame.
8. The balance of skills required are those you will need to get from outside resources.
9. Write a job specification for each related group of skills.
10. Start looking for people who can perform what you need.

Let me know if this post has been helpful.

Watch this space for a report later this week on the book recommendations that came out of the workshop.

‘Til then,

Eli

Eli Sadownick
esadownick@y2marketing.com