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Business Conundrum #33

Q. “I’ve got enough work that I need to subcontract parts of it out. I thought I was going to really enjoy it when I got to this point, and I do like being able to choose the parts of each project that I want to work on, and delegating the parts I don’t really want to do.

“But how do I keep subcontractors and part-timers interested in working with me? I have trouble finding good ones, and even when I do, they don’t seem to want to stick with me. My reputation is on the line when I subcontract work, so this is really scary for me. Is there a rule of thumb for developing a stable of great people?”

PowerSmarts #33

A. This is a really big question, with a lot of big parts, so let’s see if I can do it justice by breaking it down into smaller chunks and answering a bit of each. Then maybe we can delve deeper into each chunk in later posts. But before we start, why don’t you head on over to my PowerSmarts blog and pick up a copy of my “8 Hiring Tips for Assuring that Prospective Team Members Align with Your Small Business’s Culture.” This report will be invaluable to you in making sure you know what to look for when adding to your team in the first place, whether you’re hiring full-time employees or looking for free-lancers.

1.) Congratulations on getting your business to this point!

As you point out, when you get to the point of having too much work to do yourself, there are several advantages — one of them being your ability to choose the parts of the work you like to do the best, and delegate or contract out the rest. You’re no longer required to do everything in your business, whether it suits you or not. I’m not one of those coaches who recommends you hire out right from the get-go — I believe you need to earn this privilege, and be able to afford it. No sense paying people to do work you could be doing if that leaves you doing nothing you can bill for, and the money coming in goes right out to pay the contractors. (And yes, I see it all the time.) On the other hand, if there’s more profitable work you could be doing, I don’t want to see you doing non-profitable or admin work, either. It’s a delicate balance.

Another benefit of getting to this point is the obvious bonus of leverage — of being able to make money on things other than what you directly do yourself. If you can be earning a profit on the work you contract out while you’re earning money on the work you’re doing yourself, you’re leveraging your resources.

2.) The idea of keeping people interested in working with you is both an art and a science.

It’s an art because it has to do with how you are as a person, at your core, and how you communicate with other people. It’s a science because it can be scheduled, tracked, and learned. None of it happens overnight.

3.) Step back and analyze the art part.

Take a look at how you communicate with the people you subcontract or delegate to. Take a look at what you communicate to them about. Put yourself in their place — how much would you want to work with you?

What kind of business do you have in the first place? Is it interesting to people? Is it the kind of work they’re looking for? Are you the kind of person people want to work for?

What? You haven’t thought about that? Why not?

When you’re talking about hiring subcontractors or freelancers, it helps to remember that these people are business owners themselves, and they don’t have to take work from just anyone; like you, they want to work with people they get along well with and feel good about. Is that you? And they want to do interesting work. Is the work you give them interesting? If it isn’t, there has to be something else redeeming about working for you. Is there? What is it?

4.) Step back and analyze the science part.

How do you pay your subs? Do you pay them quickly, or do they sometimes have to wait for a check? One of the best ways to keep people loyal is to be the fastest payer — don’t you work just a teeny bit harder for the clients who pay you the quickest?

How part-time is your part-time? Do you have regular work your subs can count on, or do you just call them in willy nilly when you have a hot job? I know, sometimes it’s difficult for you to know when you’ll be busy, but if you can schedule your subcontractors at all, or if they know they can count on you X times per month, it makes it easier for them to plan, too.

How about project parameters and criteria? Do they know what’s expected of them? How much leeway they can take? When to check in with you? How to check in with you?

If you’re putting people on your payroll, there’s a whole lot more that goes into this science part, like different kinds of team meetings for different purposes, one-on-one sit-downs, reviews, retreats, workshops, group education, bonusing and profit sharing, and a bunch of other stuff, all good.

So — a rule of thumb? No.

Suggestions and recommendations and guidelines? Yes! It’s smart of you to realize you need to get this right, because your reputation is most certainly on the line when you grow your business in any way, and delegating work is one way that can indeed be very scary. Thinking through some of these questions should at least get you started.

And I’d also like to know, what are your ideas for building a team of great people?

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There’s always been a lot of information out there about hiring and working with teams for big companies, most of it completely useless for small and entrepreneurial businesses. If a small business owner, you perhaps, needs advice on hiring her first employee, or managing just a few people — employees, contract workers, or virtual workers — in a small business environment, those big-company techniques just don’t apply at all.

I’ve found that there are two essential intangibles needed in small business teams, things that are more important than the job skills or experience of the people in the teams. It doesn’t matter if your team is 20 people, or just you and a virtual assistant, make sure your team members have these two attributes. They provide the rock solid groundwork that give you a greater chance of business success.

Here are the two most important things every small business team needs to have:

1.)  Support for the owner

You’re out there with your neck on the line every day, with your name on the door, and first and foremost, you need people who really support you, who watch your back, and who make sure things don’t fall through the cracks. There are plenty of people with skills, talent, and experience out there, but your business is small and doesn’t have room for attitudes or prima donnas. If someone you’ve hired doesn’t really make you feel totally supported, if they make extra work or stress for you, something’s wrong. When hiring or thinking about whether someone is a good fit for you, ask yourself, “Could/does this person really support me?”

2.) Shared values

You need people who share your values and philosophies, and really want to see you succeed — people who add to your company culture. If your business is spiritual, you’ll want to have people on your team who value your spiritual way of doing business. If your business is working with animals, you’ll want to have people on your team who share your philosophies of caring for animals. It will drive you crazy if they don’t, and you’ll find much of their work lacking because of these differences.

Make sure your team, whatever size it is, has these two areas covered. Everything else is secondary.

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If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are your past experiences with teams are something like mine were:

a.) the jumbled, mismatched team at Mr. G’s Handy Hardware, where you worked summers during high school, pasted together with relatives of the owner and people no one knew what they really did anymore; or
b.) the boilerplate corporate team of ACME Amalgamated, your first “real” job, where your team included skill sets hired by HR who were secretly plotting to overthrow and sabotage each other.

In your own small business, you’ll probably want to do better than that. The following three principles will get your team going in the right direction.

1.) Build a culture of interdependence
This is a departure from what you may have known in the past, and it’s key to keeping people loyal, happy, and committed in businesses with small teams. Instead of valuing people who can work independently, start valuing interdependence — people who can work well in a team.

Interdependence is fostered by information sharing, team meetings, encouraging input, and modeling the behavior. Teams that depend on each other have less project hoarding, internal jealousies, and complaints.

2.) Get your people to think and act like owners
Team members who really understand what it means to run a business and are appreciated for their input will bring much more value to the company than those who don’t.

Regular communication and understanding of the direction and vision of the company, training, team building, and a plain old “thank you” every once in awhile will do much to prevent the sense of entitlement that can creep in, as well as the games people resort to when they don’t feel valued as part of a team.

3.) Focus on each person’s value to the organization
Know your people and their strengths, and let them do what they do best. This includes pushing down decision making and problem solving systems, which will keep you from being the bottleneck in your own company.

This approach means problems get solved before they end up on your desk — if you can let team members work out their own solutions, and yes — occasionally fail.

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Sydney getting support

My granddaughter Sydney just started walking. She’s doing pretty well by herself, but every once in awhile she still needs a bit of support, something to hang on to. To get her balance. To be able to perform at her best. People around her can demonstrate all the skills and knowledge they have, but if Syd doesn’t have the support she needs, she’s going to fall!
In the same way, very small business owners need support, first and foremost, from their teams.

Support and fit are the differences between the team you build for your company and the teams you may have worked with in a corporate or big business setting.

#1. You need support
When you’re building your own small business team, the number one thing you need is support. Not skills. Not experience. Not knowledge. It’s support. Let’s say that again: you need support.

At the end of the day, you’re the one with your neck on the line. You’re the one who’s made the investment, the promises, the commitments. You need to deliver, and you need support in order to do that well and consistently.

Many business owners are tempted to hire team members for specific skill sets and specialized knowledge, and that’s all well and good, down the line. You do need these things. But remember that now, in your business, this is for you: the whole shootin’ match depends on you. So while you’re looking at that person with the great technical skills or the terrific sales record, think about the two of you working together side-by-side on a project and ask yourself, “Will this person be able to really support me like I need him to?”

#2. You need people who fit your personality, values, and philosophies
You need this to stay sane. This is not really taken into account in big business — you get who you get on your team, and they’re usually hired by HR. But in a very small business, it’s really important, especially to you, the owner, to be working with people who fit you and “get” you. You need this to feel totally supported (see #1) — you really need to be understood by your team.

Make a list of your personality quirks, values, and philosophies — your team may not match all of them, but you’ll work better with people who do. Would you like to work with people who are patient and willing to flow with your eccentric personality? Put that on your list. Is it more important to you that the work gets done to your exacting standards than that it gets done at a certain time, or vice versa? If you’re hiring someone who’s going to work very closely with you, it may be important to you that they see eye to eye with you philosophically. It really pays to think about what kind of people you work best with. (Of course, you can’t discriminate against someone for religion, race, or disability, but you wouldn’t do that anyway.)

Bottom line: People are people, and depending on how close you’re going to be working with them, you’ll want to feel like they’re part of your “team.” You’ll want a rapport, a relationship with them, so you can begin to read each other. Remember Murphy Brown’s house painter? Eldin was a part of Murphy’s team, even though he wasn’t a traditional hired employee, and he really fit her personality. If you want to be able to count on someone the way Murphy counted on Eldin, you have to start thinking of them as part of your team — people who can support you and fit your personality, values, and philosophies.