Building an online business is a thrilling journey! Watching your numbers climb and your venture bloom feels incredible almost like a rush.
But with growth comes a new set of challenges especially the need to expand your team.
Hiring can be a daunting task particularly if you’ve been a solopreneur from the start.
It raises a lot of questions like which roles are most important to fill first and whether to bring on full-time employees or freelancers.
It’s completely normal to feel anxious about hiring and managing a team especially if you’ve never done it before.
A lot of entrepreneurs struggle with this.
According to the SBTA 2021 Small Business Trends Report recruiting and retention are the second biggest challenges for small businesses (after the pandemic of course).
I understand this hesitation.
It can feel like you’re losing control when you delegate tasks to others.
But don’t worry! Hiring is just another skill you can learn and master.
I’ve been responsible for hiring and managing teams at several online businesses and helped grow companies like LandingCube Fatcat Apps and Flamingo from scratch.
These experiences taught me valuable lessons about which tasks to outsource and how to hire in a way that doesn’t slow down your growth.
Let’s dive in! I’ll talk about the pros and cons of hiring freelancers versus in-house employees discuss the specific hiring needs of different online business types and cover the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when building their teams.
Freelancers vs. In-House Employees: Choosing the Right Path for Your Business
One of the first big decisions you’ll face is whether to hire a freelancer for a specific project or bring someone on full-time as an in-house employee.
A lot of entrepreneurs especially those who started with side hustles make the mistake of relying solely on freelancers.
This is often rooted in a fear of committing to managing permanent employees.
On the other hand some businesses go too far in the opposite direction hiring more permanent staff than they truly need.
This can lead to a bloated company with high recurring expenses.
Getting this hiring decision right is crucial for sustainable growth and profitability.
Let’s compare the advantages of each approach:
The Advantages of Hiring Freelancers
- Flexibility: The biggest benefit of hiring freelancers is the lack of long-term commitment. You only pay them when you need a job done. No sick leave no holidays no salary when you’re between projects or there’s no work.
- No HR Headaches: You also avoid the hassles of HR issues which many entrepreneurs dread.
- Specialized Skills: Freelancers often bring niche skills specific to the task at hand. This means you don’t have to wait for employees to learn new things.
The Advantages of Hiring In-House Employees
- Higher Quality Work: In-house employees are more likely to be invested in your business and the success of their projects. This can lead to higher quality work overall.
- Consistency: In-house staff provide more consistent work. This is crucial for maintaining a consistent tone across your content (blog posts copywriting email marketing) or for ongoing work on a product that requires updates and maintenance (like software).
- Cost-Effective in the Long Run: While they might seem more expensive upfront in-house employees are actually less expensive per hour (or per word per project) in the long run. This is because you’re offering them stability and a sense of belonging within your company. Freelancers often need to charge a premium because they lack that consistent income stream.
Finding the Right Balance: The Key to Successful Hiring
If you’re hoping for a clear-cut answer to the freelancer vs. in-house dilemma I have to say it’s not that simple.
The best approach depends on your specific business type your current workload and your long-term goals.
Hiring for Specific Business Types
Now let’s talk about the most common hiring needs for different types of online businesses.
Software Businesses
Your code is your product in a software business.
Contracting out all your coding to freelance programmers is a big mistake.
Hiring freelancers might seem cost-effective but it can jeopardize your long-term success.
Developers who aren’t deeply invested in your company’s success may not have the same attention to detail needed to create a robust bug-free product.
You’ll also face challenges with maintenance and updates.
Software development rarely ends with the first version.
Bugs arise and updates are crucial to stay competitive.
Failing to maintain your product is a death sentence.
Relying on different freelancers for each bug fix or update can lead to a messy hard-to-manage codebase.
Bottom Line: Unless you the founder have a strong tech background always have a programmer on your team.
Beyond coding customer service is another crucial role to fill with a full-time employee. They need to understand your product inside and out to provide excellent support. Many software businesses underestimate the value of quality support but it can make or break your product’s success.
E-commerce Businesses
E-commerce businesses have a lot of ongoing tasks that freelancers are simply not well-suited for.
Logistical jobs like order management building listings and handling customer inquiries are best done in-house.
You should also have a dedicated employee focused on your main traffic sources whether it’s Facebook and Google ads email marketing or something else entirely.
Smaller less frequent tasks like graphic design content writing or coding for your website can often be outsourced to freelancers.
Just make sure the critical day-to-day tasks are handled by your team.
Content Websites
Content websites compared to e-commerce sites are usually smaller and easier to manage as a one-person operation.
There are fewer essential ongoing tasks that demand a full-time employee.
Basic affiliate sites where most content is written by freelance writers or content services can be run well even with a small team.
The workload might only involve a few hours per week creating content briefs and publishing posts.
However if your site is larger than average or requires in-depth or technical content you should seriously consider hiring permanent staff.
For instance sites that generate revenue from high-value affiliate commissions (products costing hundreds or thousands of dollars) need writers with expert knowledge of the industry.
Relying on freelancers at this level can be costly and unreliable.
The Most Common Hiring Mistakes to Avoid
Now let’s examine the most common hiring mistakes companies make.
By understanding these pitfalls you can accelerate your business growth and build a strong valuable company.
1. Under-Hiring for Crucial Tasks
Failing to hire permanent staff for essential tasks that make or break your business is a recipe for stunted growth.
When you hire a freelancer they likely have multiple clients.
After completing your project their focus shifts elsewhere.
This means you may not get the dedication and attention to detail needed for critical tasks.
This can have a major negative impact on your company.
As mentioned earlier roles like coding for a software business driving traffic for an e-commerce business and creating high-level technical content are best done in-house.
2. Over-Hiring
It’s also common for business owners to go overboard and hire too many permanent employees.
While a diverse and deep team is great it can also lead to high recurring overhead costs that are hard to reduce when necessary (like during revenue dips or a business model pivot). Having too many full-time employees can also make selling your business harder.
3. Procrastinating on Hiring
Going too long without hiring anyone at all can also be a mistake.
You can end up stretching yourself too thin sacrificing attention to detail for each task.
Some small businesses can thrive as one-person operations but every company needs to expand its team eventually to scale up.
Hiring the Right People: The Importance of a Thorough Process
Beyond deciding whether to hire someone or not you need to make sure you’re hiring the right people.
When hiring for full-time positions interviews should be thorough enough to give you confidence that your new hire will be a valuable asset.
You might also consider hiring applicants on a conditional basis initially such as for smaller projects or a short-term contract before deciding if they’re a good fit for your permanent team.
Follow a similar screening process when hiring freelancers.
Their sales pitch doesn’t always reflect the quality of their work.
The amount of screening you do depends on the size of the task.
A short blog post doesn’t require much but if you’re hiring someone to code your website or write an e-book get examples of their previous work.
Onboarding: Setting Your New Team Members Up for Success
The hiring process doesn’t end when you send a job offer.
You need to help your new employee integrate into your business and get up to speed.
Onboarding is about teaching your new hires about your company’s culture expectations and conventions.
This includes training them on any tools your company uses like Slack Trello or Asana.
You should also have a comprehensive list of standard operating procedures (SOPs) that clearly outline how tasks should be completed.
This helps your staff settle in quickly and start contributing value.
It also helps reduce conflicts that can arise when team members aren’t on the same page.
Don’t Underestimate the Value of Competitive Compensation
The old saying “you get what you pay for” holds true in hiring.
Don’t expect the best if you’re only offering low wages.
There are exceptions to this rule of course.
You might find talented bargains in areas with lower costs of living like parts of Asia or Eastern Europe.
However as remote work becomes more common top talent from those regions will get better offers.
If your business can’t afford market rates reconsider whether you really need to hire someone at this time.
If you can only offer a low budget you may need to handle those tasks yourself or accept a lower standard of work.
Final Thoughts: Building a Sustainable Team for Growth
If you dream of turning your side hustle into a full-time business or selling it for a substantial profit hiring is inevitable.
Many entrepreneurs lose time and money by making mistakes in the hiring process like hiring the wrong people or outsourcing the wrong tasks.
Under-hiring and over-hiring are common pitfalls both of which can negatively impact your business.
By following the tips I’ve outlined in this post you’ll increase your chances of growing a strong and sustainable business.
Remember building a team is a crucial step in taking your online venture to the next level!