Do you run a small business in the UK and are you asking yourself if it is time to start to recruit staff?

The first part is to go through a series of questions answering them truthfully and this will then assist you in working out whether you need to start recruiting.

Has your growth stagnated?

When the amount of work you’re doing dwarfs the amount of time in the day; when your work particularly routine activities that could be delegated bleeds into all your days including your evenings, if you’re even thinking of turning away work for fears of not being able to deliver, it might be time to ‘get more hands on deck’.

It may be that you may even be rushing jobs. When the workload is so high that you cannot do the work to a good standard or give your clients the attention they need, the reputation of the business might be affected. You may also be ignoring the needs of the business; not building strategies, putting marketing to the bottom of the to-do list.

Is your workload comfortable?

If your workload is comfortable, and foreseeably will continue to be, what you are offering is valuable. You may be seeking only the right amount of work to keep you going. You may be ignoring the power of networking and marketing because you have enough work already. That’s fine, if that’s the way you want your business to continue — but you could be increasing your turnover, you could offering employment and training to others. You could be growing your business.

An assistant can alleviate all of this. And passing the work on to them means that you can focus on growing the business further.

Outsourcing a lot of work?

You may be outsourcing much of the work that may considered to be brought in-house. In some cases outsourcing means that you are losing some control and also in addition you will be usually be paying more. It means that there is work there that someone could be hired to do. If you outsource regularly to a particular team or person, look to see if that workload could be managed by an employee instead — and consider the advantages of having that person physically close by on communication and deliverability.

Some common facts researched and found on the web!

Employing — especially your first — can be an intimidating thought. The financial burden is quite easy to work out, whereas the financial gain is less clear. If we look to the statistics of businesses and their turnover, we can see that employing staff is an essential part of growing your business. The average one-man business turns over £56.6K per year. When we look at businesses with 1–9 people, the average number of staff in that group is 4, and the average turnover is £392.8K. Each staff member is then worth an average of £98.2K to the business — including the boss. A 73% increase of worth from being a one-man-band. These are all averages, of course, and will not accurately represent individual experiences — but an average means that some do worse, and others will do better.

So for more information about employing someone for the first time or generally employing staff then see links below:

https://www.gov.uk/employing-staff

Acas Handbook: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/d/m/Employing-people-a-handbook-for-small-firms-accessible-version.pdf

In addition to the above search for your local “Work Programme Provider” in your local region and the provider should be able to also assist.

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