🥗 Hiring: The Most Important Skill of Any Business Owner & Leader

Hey there,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

In this week's newsletter, we're talking about a never-ending issue that everybody is struggling with to some extent.

… and that is:

Hiring, leadership, and delegation.

It's one of those areas that are highly critical yet often not talked about remotely as much as marketing & sales.

This doesn't make sense because you can make all the marketing and sales in the world - but if you can't fulfil it properly (without doing it all yourself), then what's the point?

But before we move on - here's a quick disclaimer:

Our team is currently 20 people, spread across multiple companies.

Although our revenue per employee is very high - we still haven't figured out every single thing about hiring, leadership, and delegation.

… but, we do know a thing or two about it - and that's what we'll share in today's newsletter.

We've also grown the organization by 2x over the last 4-5 months - and therefore, this topic is on our minds A LOT.

PS: We’re currently hiring copywriters & social media managers. If you want to work with us - reply to this email or send an email to [email protected]

Without further ado, let's get into it!

You pay 2x for cheap talent.

When it comes to hiring, cheap is not always better.

The reason why we're hiring people to begin with is because we want to move tasks off our plates so we can focus on more important things.

I.e. tasks that have more leverage (bigger impact per hour we put into it)

But,

If the tasks end up bouncing back to us because it was poorly done, didn't meet a deadline or the like, then we have one of two problems.

A) We didn't hire the right person with the right skill sets and the right attitude

B) We didn't train the person well enough, and we didn't give them everything they needed to thrive and be successful in their role

Notice both of these are problems about "us" and not "them". Because at the end of the day - the only way to solve a problem is by taking responsibility for it.

The reason why you pay 2x for cheap talent is that you pay one time in money (their salary) and one time in your time/energy (to fix their work).

Definitely not an optimal situation

But, does that mean that you should NEVER hire cheap talent (think: overseas labour)

No, not necessarily.

Does it mean that you should always hire expensive talent?

No, not necessarily, either.

As with almost everything else in life, there are nuances you need to think about.

Cheap labour (e.g. overseas) definitely has its benefits when thinking about the cost savings and also the work ethic of the labour in 3rd world countries in particular

But when it comes to highly creative tasks or tasks that you have to think independently about - we've not found the best success with this type of labour (not yet, at least)

The way we like to think about it is:

If it's a task-based role where there's little to no upward mobility - then it makes sense to hire overseas and cheap.

Think Data entry, excel analysis, editing, proofreading, researching, ChatGPT'ing, etc.

But if it's a task where you have to really think independently and creatively - then you just need more skilled and expensive labour.

The flip side: Hiring expensive talent

Now, let's talk about the other side: Hiring expensive talent.

Hiring expensive talent is both scary and hard.

Hard, because:

A) Expensive typically means more experienced, and more experienced talent generally are already employed (if they are good at least)

B) They're harder to convince to join your company (especially if you're a smaller business)

C) It's harder to retain experienced people because they typically get poached from other companies quite often (again if they are good)

Now, it's also quite scary because:

A) They may do things differently than you, and therefore, you need to find the courage to just trust them and trust the process

B) If it doesn't work out as planned, you may have lost a lot of time, money, and energy on them.

So, as said - there are nuances and pros/cons to both sides.

However, the few principles that apply to both cases are:

- Give them every resource they need to thrive and be successful

- Set clear KPI's / expectations and hold them accountable to it

- Track the progress and results often to make sure they're moving the needle in the right direction

Your job as a leader is to set expectations, motivate, and communicating.

Let's break each of these down…

Expectations:

What do I expect you to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis?

Actions determine results - so if you can reverse-engineer the steps needed to achieve a given goal, you can set that as your expectation.

For example, one of our expectations with our CX rep is that they close every ticket in less than 48 hours.

This is both clear and easy to track, for both parties. So at all times, we all know whether things are going good or bad

Motivate:

People need to know that what they're doing is meaningful for themselves AND for the company.

… and it's your job as a leader to communicate that

For example, by giving praise and explaining how the micro-actions of each team member is impacting the organization on a macro level and how it can improve their career trajectory

Communicate:

The bigger your team grows, the more you need to think about:

• How often do you communicate

• How you communicate

• What you communicate

• How are you tackling "bad" actions (e.g. when someone does a poor job)?

• How are your tackling "good" actions (e.g. when someone does a good job

• Are you talking to everybody once per week or once per day?

There's no right or wrong answer to this, and we certainly haven't nailed it either. But it's a good thought exercise to do regardless.

Agency of the Week

Another way to get more leverage in your business is simply working on the right things.

You can have all the tech in the world, all the employees in the world, and all the money in the world - but if you're not working in the right direction…

Chances are: You'll get beat by the ones with fewer resources but the right direction/strategy

But how do you know what the right things to work on are?

Well, it all starts by diving deep into your internal data and figuring out where the biggest leverage points are.

This is exactly what Salvit Advisors can help you with.

In a nutshell, they dive into your internal data and give you data-backed insights into A) What you should be working on AND what you shouldn't be working on as well.

They're currently offering a free leverage playbook where they'll plug into your analytics stack and will identify up to 3 data-driven insights that will immediately begin driving you more profit in your business.

At zero cost…

Click here to get your free Leverage Playbook

Thanks for reading along

As always,

Thanks for reading along. We appreciate you and look forward to serving you again on Sunday.

All the best

Ron & Ash