Do you remember your first hire? There is so much that goes into building a company, but few things matter as much the quality of the team you assemble. Given the immense importance of team building, we wanted to create a series where we ask entrepreneurs who have been there and done that, to share their stories and lessons with the community.

Dr. Casuel Pitts

From day one I set the bar high and did not employ anyone to help me bring my vision to fruition, instead, it took a full year before I was ready to bring my first employee on board. But now, 18 companies later, I have attained the enviable feat of having a workforce of over 6500 people, comprising both employees and freelancers. To ensure that I was putting the right people in the right places, I made them all take personality tests and love language tests, so they felt more at ease working alongside me rather than for me. Read more>>

Ruhani Sandhu-Kamboj

When I joined it took a while for the existing staff in place to trust in my abilities and thoughts and allow me to help lead the way. Honestly i’d have the same skepticism myself if placed in the same position. Being passionate on a day to day business, and learning more about my team helped me to learn more about what they value, and how they work. Read more>> 

Tomorrow’s Young Leaders

Building a nonprofit has many factors from creating the board members to establishing fundraisers. When selecting the right board members we like to analyze the impact they have on the community; is it positive or negative? When we were recruiting the first few board members we looked for varies of characteristics such as accountability, leadership skills, organizational skills, authenticity, family orientated, passion, respectful, self-driven, compassionate, and much more. Read more>>

Beth Faulkner

I am a firm believer you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Building an amazing team has been crucial to the success of End of Days Distillery. We started with just a core group of dreamers and doers and have continued to grow into the little army we are today. Back in 2020 it felt much easier to find employees. Read more>>

Matthew Lennon

Since 2012 we have had various successes with long-term hires. I jumped into this business not knowing a thing about staffing. How big? How full time? Only time could tell. I was about to embark on a work journey with no real knowledge of the industry I was getting into. Being a restaurateur is one set of stresses; being a caterer/concessionaire is a completely different ball of wax. We still cook food. Read more>>

Sharon Brown

We have quite an unconventional way of building a team, but it works! I started out on my own with this idea but as I was running three other businesses and always conveying the message around ‘collaboration over competition’, it made sense to ask people I knew and trusted if they would be a part of this business. I knew their strengths and how we could all complement each others so each team member had a small buy in to The Book Chief. Read more>>