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.

Natasha Riley

I was a team of 1 for the first year and a half of my business journey, but grinding things out on my own was the norm. You could’ve just called me “Superwoman”! It wasn’t until I joined my first business coaching group that it was even encouraged to get help…as soon as I could. Now, in my mind having a team meant bells and whistles. I had no clue that I could bring someone on for a few hours or for a particular project. Read more>>

Adina Brunetti

Being a lifelong recruiter, I finally created my dream team by launching my company at a young age. However, due to a lack of funds and a bootstrapping mindset, I discovered that I was toying with the idea that most business owners find challenging: hiring entry-level workers on a budget in the hopes that you can train them and ultimately, they will become more responsible. Read more>>

Zach Seibel

In 2017 we started Seibel Construction. From 2017 until now we’ve consistently hired and trained several employees to perform our residential and commercial work. Our jobs are scattered all over the Greater Denver Area. Read more>>

Ryeshia Brockington

When I first started my business it was just myself and my husband volunteered to help where he could. As time went on, I was able to see areas he was really strong in that I wasn’t. I asked him did he have time to be more involved in the business and he obliged. He is now my social media manager, video editor, videographer, photographer, creative director, and chief operations officer. Read more>>

Kimmi Scott

Building “the right team” is job in and of itself. For most small businesses (including ours), we are the staff. The whole staff. We work marketing, intake, process, HR… EVERYTHING. I think that’s what you have to do in the beginning. We didn’t open our business with a lot of capital, so hiring employees out the gate was a no. We spent many weekends and nights working. Read more>>

Claudia Gharai

DRMZ Agency was born by both myself and Co-Founder Kam Katouzian. I bring over 20 years of Marketing + Advertising experience to the table as Co-Founder and CMO while Kam’s background and skillsets are predominately in cloud security, engineering and IT. Read more>>

Joy Davis

When I was hired as executive director, one staff member was already in place. I pride myself on being flexible and able to work with anyone. However, there were several challenges with this individual who did not share my vision for the organization and openly disagreed with my decisions and actions. Thankfully, my board of trustees agreed with me, and I guided her into choosing to leave the position. Read more>>

Jessica Halley

It was just me at the start and my mother started to help out whenever I needed her. She really was monumental in our quick growth. From the beginning, I knew that success would come from a strong team and building that team was always the goal. Just a few months in after stacking a good recurring client base I posted the first job ad on Indeed and started meeting applicants at Panera. Read more>>

John Francisco

When I first started MJM it was just me and a bunch of Tupperware containers full of baby music props. I created the business to work 25 hours/week, make a great full time living, and spend the rest of my time being a generative artist. And then I was phenomenally lucky – I was embraced by the people of Philly and the demand become more than I could handle. Read more>>