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.

Denise Espinosa.

When we first opened Soma Yoga Studio in December of 2019, it was right before the pandemic, and initially there were only 3 teachers and myself. The majority of the classes were taught by myself as we eased into this new start-up, getting our feet rooted, and our name out in the community. We were grateful for the teachers that joined our team immediately, putting their trust in us and our new brand. Read more>>

Bri Logue

The business was new, and my husband and I knew that we needed help if we were going to make it a success. We took our time creating our core values and standard operating procedures, then we started to look for employees. We found two great virtual assistants through onlinjobs.ph. They were excited to help us with cold calling and pulling lists/skip tracing. The first person we hired was great at first, but after a few weeks, she stopped converting leads. Come to find out, she had been faking her dials the whole time! So we had to let her go. Read more>>

Claudia Casco

Maracas Montessori is a full Spanish immersion Montessori preschool and Kindergarten in north Raleigh. I started the school as a small project at my home being the teacaher of a small group of toddlers. The group grew quicly and I moved to a small place where I had to hire the first teacher. 12 years later, we have an operation fo 100 hundred children in a beautiful facility full of nature and peace. Read more>>

Michelle Ghassemi

yes we started with 6 employees. it was definitely a process to get/attract employees that were a good fit for us longterm in some areas. In hindsight that stems from an unclear vision for our hiring and recruitment processes. we didn’t know we could have ways to attract and get our culture mission out there and get better candidates from the start. I didn’t realize how important it was to actually have strategy for recruitment and consistency and to be hiring all the time. if I was starting today, I would hire a marketing person for social and ask someone for help in knowing what I dont know, what I should know. Read more>>

Clorissa Wright-Thomas

My business has been up and running since 2006. Initially, I was a solopreneur and did all of the functions my company required by myself. I operated this way for about 5 years. At the 5 year mark, I tapped into colleges and hired interns twice per year to assist. To date, I’m proud to say that Georgia State University, Morehouse College and Kennesaw State University sent be THE BEST students to work with me. I operated this way for about 2 years and it was great. Read more>>