Yourtraining practice doesn't turn into a real business until you're managingemployees, in my opinion. It's when you're attending to the priority of growingyour business and your employees are doing everything else that you're reallysetting the stage for future growth.
Thestage of moving up to an employer is one of the biggest and most importantyou'll make in your business life. Hiring employees isn't as simple as placinga "help wanted" ad in the classified section of the newspaper. It's actually a newskill that must be learned - and an area where it's possible to make some majormistakes.
Iknow from firsthand experience. That's why I'm going to give you some of theinformation I learned both from the top minds in the business as well as frommy own painful trial and error. This info should make the process much easierand even enjoyable for you and something that will actually give you theresults you're looking for:
- Start small. Like I mentioned above, hiring and managing employees is a skill, so you should look to learn it as early as possible and not when you're in a crisis situation. Just like learning anything new, you should start early and start small. At first, you may just want to start out with a part-time assistant; someone that can work under your direct supervision and do the things that you don't have the time to do anymore. Once you are comfortable giving instructions to others, you can then move them up to a full-time employee that can work without your supervision. If you take it step by step, you'll learn to delegate more and more to the point where you can coordinate many different people and know that everything is getting done.
- Look in your inner circle first. The actual act of hiring is where personal training business owners screw up big time. When hiring, look within your own network of contacts first. One of the worst ways to hire employees is to place an ad in a newspaper. What you'll find is that most of the people checking the help wanted section are not only unemployed, they're unemployable.
The best place for you to look is in your network of friends, contacts, acquaintances and customers. They say that every person knows 100 other people, so if you let everyone in your direct circle know that you're hiring, you'll be very surprised at how many people you can reach. - Hire slow, fire fast. Most people make their hiring decisions too quickly out of desperation or overwork and end up paying for them later on. For that reason, the job is often given to the first the person who walks in the door, and this is a big mistake.
Hiring is one of the most important decisions you can make as a business owner. A wrong hire will cost you thousands of dollars, waste lots of your time and could potentially sink your business.
Anyone can show up to an interview and make a good first impression. That's why it's better for you to conduct multiple interviews with any new potential hire and even have other people you trust interview them, too. Spending a few hours in this stage of the process will save you countless hours later on.
The second part of this formula is to fire quickly. Even if you do take your time in hiring an employee, you will still inevitably make some mistakes. Once you realize that things aren't working out, don't extend the torture; get rid of them as fast as possible. You're only doing yourself and the other person a disservice by keeping them around in a job that's not a good fit.
Havingemployees is something that should make your life easier and free up more ofyour time, but that's only the case when you do it right. The good news is onceyou do get it right, you have the key to unlimited growth for yourself and yourbusiness.
Kaiser Serajuddin is the writer of the popularpersonal training blog, Super-Trainer.com. He guides personal trainersthrough the challenging period of starting their personal training businessesand helps them on the road to six figures. For more information, you can downloadhis special report, THE SIX-FIGURE FORMULA, at www.super-trainer.com.
