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There’s nothing wrong with staying small. I’ve known plenty of high-dollar consultants who have happily chosen to remain single-person operations in order to minimize complexity and keep their focus on their work rather than on the management and overhead demands of an agency.
For me, it wasn’t enough. And maybe it isn’t for you either.
If your dream is to expand beyond your own capabilities and embrace the agency model over solo consultancy, one of the first, biggest steps you’ll take is bringing on new talent. But how do you choose the right person? Which role should you fill first?
There are no 100% right or wrong answers to these questions. So, to help you find your path forward, I’ve shared a few tips below from my experience turning my SEO consulting business into an agency.
Choose Your Employment Structure
For starters, although most people think of traditional, full-time employees when they hear the words “first hire,” growing agencies have many more options, including:
• Part-time employees
• Long-term contractors
• Project-based contractors
• Interns
• Partnerships and barter arrangements with those who have complementary skills
One seriously underutilized opportunity? Hiring your family members and friends to help with overflow work.
When my partner, Gian, and I decided to start scaling the consulting work we’d been doing, we realized we had a lot of rote, tedious tasks that needed to be handled. And since we launched in the middle of the global financial crisis of 2008, many of our friends and siblings were happy to help us out and put some extra cash in their pockets at the same time.
I don’t know your family dynamics, so I don’t know if that approach is right for you. I hear plenty of horror stories from others who haven’t been able to work as successfully with family members as we have, so definitely tread carefully here.
But I hope our example encourages you to think outside the box when it comes to expanding your team. Hiring doesn’t have to mean locking yourself into potentially restrictive employment arrangements. It could mean leaning on family, friends or other non-traditional workers until you’re ready for your first full-time employee.
Decide What To Delegate
To a certain degree, what you decide to delegate will influence the type of worker relationships you need to build. If you need someone who can dedicate 40 hours per week to your agency, for example, you’re probably going to have to shell out the big bucks for full-time employment. But if you aren’t quite sure what to delegate, there are plenty of different strategies you can use to identify which specific responsibilities you’d like your first hire to handle.
In the example I shared above, you can see that Gian and I decided to take some of the more manual processes involved in SEO work off our plates by passing them onto our family members and friends. However, there’s also an argument to be made for bringing on a skilled partner first.
Imagine that you’re a successful business process consultant who’s in danger of becoming overbooked. You could hire an assistant to manage your back-office functions, but you could also hire a junior business process consultant who would enable you to take on more projects without bearing sole responsibility for the strategic work required by your business.
Again, there are no clear-cut guidelines to follow, though asking yourself the following questions may help:
• What will be easiest to delegate to others? Onboarding, training and managing new hires takes time. If you don’t have time to spare, filling an entry-level or administrative role first could be a smart choice.
• What do you like doing least? How could you transition those tasks to a new hire to boost your overall happiness? Don’t underestimate the impact of your morale on your overall productivity.
• What skill sets are you lacking? Is it possible that your new hire could bring to the table complementary skills that shore up your weaknesses? For example, if you identify as a “visionary” consultant, you might want to consider finding an “integrator” personality to support your strategic vision. To learn more about this, I highly recommend checking out the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) books by Gino Wickman.
Are You Ready To Expand?
Finally, how do you know if you’re really ready for that first hire? Start by answering the following questions:
• How much compensation do you need to take from your business? If you’re young or comfortable living on a shoestring budget, you may rely less on your business’s income than, say, a solo breadwinner supporting a family of four.
• Is the position you’re planning to fill a revenue-generating position? If so, you may need far less in reserve than if you’re hiring a primarily administrative role (though it’s still important to keep in mind that, according to data gathered by HubSpot, the average ramp-up period for a new salesperson is still 6-9 months).
• Can you afford to take time away from your revenue-generating activities to train and manage your new hire? Training an employee takes time. If transitioning your time away from revenue-generating activities, even temporarily, could put your business at risk, you may not be ready to hire.
One final question I’d encourage you to ask:
• Is a lack of resources preventing you from growing in the way you want? You’ll know if you’re in this position. You’ll go to bed each night feeling stressed about how you’re going to juggle your existing workload, let alone take on more. You’ll find yourself turning down projects you’d really like to take on, but can’t due to a lack of bandwidth.
These are classic symptoms of a growth ceiling. And if your plan for breaking through is to transform from a solo consultant into an agency, finding your first hire — however that looks in practice — needs to be at the top of your to-do list as an entrepreneur.
