238 | Building Your Dream Team with Kira La Forgia, Paradigm Consulting
Being an entrepreneur and business owner comes with a lot of perks and flexibility, but add in a team that can support you and scaling your business can feel limitless. When it comes to the actual hiring process, there is so much to consider, including what scaling looks like for you, how to manage your team, and if your team members should be hired as employees or contractors
In today’s episode, Kira La Forgia of Paradigm Consulting joins us to highlight how small businesses can take the first step in hiring and what they should be aware of in the process. Listen in as she helps identify the positions you may have in your business and if they should be classified as an employee or contractor.
Growing Your Brand with a Team
Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help in our business and life, especially for women. Hiring and building a team is the most efficient and effective way to scale our business and grow our brand.
The biggest hesitation with hiring comes down to money and the cost associated with it. Let’s do a little mindset shifting and rather than looking at hiring as losing money, think of it as gaining time back. While you’re qualified to handle most of the responsibilities in your business, should you be handling them? Consider what getting a little bit of your time back to focus on the more important tasks in your business or life could look like. Could you be growing your business in other aspects without having to manage the day to day tasks?
Finding the right team can add so much value to your business, so let’s start building your dream team!
Preparing for When and How to Hire Employees
In your business, if you’re handling most of your tasks, they aren’t daunting, and you’re getting by with ease, there really isn’t a reason to hire. When it’s time to hire, you’ll start to feel this pull that has you questioning if things would be easier if you had someone who could handle tasks for you. That pull eventually becomes a push and guides you into knowing that it’s time to hire.
If you believe it’s time to scale your business and hire employees, think about the roles you want to bring on new team members for. You can do this by looking at the things in your business that you know other people can do and it doesn’t require you.
If you’re not sure exactly what this looks like, you can map out a standard operating procedure to help guide you in this decision process. After doing this, you’ll start to understand just how many hours you’ll need in an additional team member. When you bring someone on, you can test and feel it out.
You should also consider the financial commitment to bringing on team members. It’s important that your revenue reflects your ability to pay them, but that you’re also building a plan to bring in additional revenue to ensure you can consistently and continuously pay them as a team member.
Once you’ve brought on additional help, you can consider additional tasks and what needs to be protected; this means an onboarding process, employee handbook, etc.
Employee vs. Contractor
Team members are helping you build the foundations of your business, but their commitment and responsibilities will be based on the classification of their role with you. When hiring new team members, you’re faced with the decision to have employees or contractors—what’s the difference?
Contractors are managed on a 1099 tax form and have to handle paying their own taxes. This is usually ideal for project based services or on tasks that don’t require set times and hours. Employees are managed on a W2 tax form, offered part-time or full-time, and are more accessible to you for dedicated hours in the business. When hiring employees, you’ll need to consider benefits, taxes, and insurance (especially with in-house employees).
How you classify them will be based on your business needs, your mindset in their role, and how you want them to engage with and represent your brand.
One of the biggest considerations in determining if a contractor or an employee is right for the role is the mindset. An employee usually feels a loyalty to the job and the brand where a contractor doesn’t have the same ties or commitments.
Classifying Common Roles in Product Based Businesses
In our industry, there are a variety of roles that we can hire for in our business, so let’s take a look at some of the most common roles and how you should consider classifying them in your business:
Bookkeeper: Contractor
Social Media Manager: Contractor
In-House Studio Assistant: Employee (part-time or full-time) - With in-house helpers, you run the risk of injury so you’ll need insurance to cover you, versus relying upon a contractor to carry their own insurance.
Trade Show Helpers - Contractor or Employee - Based on the role in your business, this could work either way.
As a business owner, you should consider taking the time to educate those you’re hiring in the role that you’re hiring for so they know what to expect from you, but also in tax season. Many individuals aren’t aware of the differences between a contractor versus an employee role.
If you’re looking to scale your brand, grow your team, and hire help in your business, make sure you check out Kira’s business and resources! She has a variety of free resources, a template shop with job descriptions, management templates, and more, plus she offers an annual membership for those looking for ongoing support!
Today’s episode is brought to you by LABS, the program to help you strengthen the foundations of your business! Whether you’re brand new or you’ve been in the game for a while, we offer a track for each that is catered to your needs in business. LABS fills in the holes and cracks in your business and opens quarterly for enrollment. If you’re ready to enroll in Labs, make sure you’re on the waitlist!
Important Sections in Today’s Episode:
Get to Know Kira (2:47)
What to Have in Place Before Hiring Employees (9:31)
Common Roles You Might Be Hiring For (21:00)
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MEET KIRA:
With a decade of experience in People Operations in the corporate world, Kira La Forgia am no stranger to the sensitive issues involved in the human side of running a business. There’s a lot to learn from hiring, onboarding, training, and managing the performance of over 500 employees for a multimillion dollar business. The good news is, Kira learned it all so you don’t have to.
Kira founded Paradigm to bridge the gap between corporate HR policies and the modern needs of online entrepreneurs. Because Google might have almost all the answers, but it doesn’t have what your unique business needs.
CONNECT WITH ALEX
Website: the-paradigm.com | Shop: settoscale.com| Instagram: @theparadigmm
Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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