Overwhelmingly, media coverage of team building, hiring, training, etc. is often geared towards the issues faced by HR at Fortune 500 sized companies. Even when it’s positioned as advice for small business owners it is often coming from an executive or consultant working primarily with giant corporations. We think it’s far more relevant to hear from small and medium business owners who have successfully grown their businesses – and so we asked some very talented folks to tell us the stories of their initial hires and the struggles and lessons they can share.

Ginny Delaitre

VDS Digital Agency started with just me in 2021. In those early days, I was doing everything—building the business, managing clients, and laying the foundation for what VDS would become. It was both exciting and overwhelming, but I knew that creating a strong vision and culture was essential before growing the team. Read More>>

Daniel Robbins

When I first started in athlete representation in 2019 I was part of a larger team but was the only one representing athletes. The other team members were part of the larger agency – Loud And Live. They helped on the event side of the business, and in other ventures. When I left Loud And Live in 2022 with my business partner, Matt O’Keefe he went to become the CEO of HWPO Training and I ran the athlete representation business virtually solo. I did all of the accounting, emails, out reach, phone calls, contract negotiations and review, etc. Read More>>

David Rivas & Sam Braley

DAVID: Camp: Destination started with myself and 5 other staff who took on the challenge of a summer experience that was very volunteer and community oriented. Finding the right people for the job was a challenge, and it remains a challenge up to the present day. Read More>>

Kayla Shurson

Taking over an existing business meant inheriting a team of dedicated employees whom I had already worked alongside. In the first three years, we experienced steady growth. It’s possible to run a tight ship in a small business when everyone is hustling, and the challenges are more manageable. Read More>>

Brandi Rhodes

I started the Naked Mind team from the ground up. We now have around 30 teachers and employees. The most important thing to me was to make sure that everyone that encounters clients shares the same mentality: kindness, passion for their work and passion for the studio. You have to love yoga + Pilates yourself to best serve your clients. Read More>>

Joyce R

When Clear Lake Maids started, it was just me, wearing all the hats—cleaning, scheduling, marketing, you name it! In the early days, I quickly realized that to grow and maintain quality service, I needed help. Recruiting the first few team members was a mix of excitement and nervousness. I found them through local job boards (indeed, Facebook) and referrals from friends. Read More>>

Stephen Ho

Every show has different needs but the methodology for finding crew members is the same: the crew members you’d like to have on set are passionate, incredibly talented, and collaborative people who are also nice, easygoing people. Having nice and easygoing people goes a long way to having a smooth set because there are no egos involved and you want people who you get along with because you might be seeing them everyday for the next month or two. Read More>>