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.

Elizabeth Cardenas

We first started out just my husband and I, we grew little by little and added people who would help with manufacturing. Both of our families stepped up to fill in parts and then we started to offer more opportunities for people. One of the things I am most proud of being able to do is offer flexible work-from-home opportunities for individuals who need them. Over the years we have been able to help out families with stay-at-home moms, homeschool moms, retired veterans, and even just helped out some people be able to save up for vacations. Now we have a great team, someone who specializes in in-person sales, a team of manufacturing which allows me to focus on the next step for growth. Read more>>

Glen Bhimani

our business did not have employees from day one. I was the only employee from day one, I was responsible for getting clients and staffing the locations by myself until I was able to afford employees. my approach was to pay the maximum amount to my new employees up to the breakeven amount my clients were paying me, to allow me to be the highest paid security company in San Antonio. We had an unconventional hiring practice. for example, if we are hiring for a morning shift, we till the applicant to meet us at 5am for the job interview. you will be surprised how many people say that is too early. in our experience if 5am is to early when their shift starts at 6am more than likely they will be late to work, and we move on to the next applicant. We also had applicants bring all their duty gear for inspection if the gear was poorly maintained or was the wrong equipment and they tried to justify using the wrong equipment they would not be hired. with the high rate of pay and our unconventional hiring practices we have managed to have a 6% turnover rate compared to 220% for the industry average. Read more>>

Julie Reiskin

We did have some employees but most of us were volunteers until about 2015 and we transitioned to being paid staff. Almost all of our staff have disabilities and until 2015we could not work and earn money without risking losing our Medicaid and Medicaid is how we get services that enable us to work such as personal care, wheelchairs, medications, etc. No private insurance serves people with disabilities. So we had to get the law changed to make it so we could earn money and pay into Medicaid. Most of our staff come from our volunteer base, but sometimes we hire the traditional way. We do not have any unnecessary qualifications such as degree requirements unless it is absolutely necessary (e.g. our lawyers have to have a law degree). Moving from a volunteer staff to a paid staff was challenging, both in terms of having to raise a lot more money while maintaining the same programming and having to change expectations. However, our staff are incredibly dedicated because they are members of the community and we are all affected by the issues we address in our work. We probably need to do more training than we do for new people because our organization and work is fairly complex. We have a very low turnover rate. I have been at CCDC a long time but am not the founder. I am not sure what I would do differently, Read more>>

Melissa Marshall

I never imagined starting a photography career at that point, if ever. Once I started it kind of just exploded. The more sessions I did the more I would get booked. Early on, I had not imagined it becoming a place where multiple people worked because honestly it was my “side hustle.” As the years went by I would work random weddings with some acquaintances and realized that I would love to build a community in the photography industry but I was not quite sure how to do it, after all, it is a very competitive business to get in to. I worked both in full time banking, sales and the photography business from 2012-2016 and after I had my first child I was able to quit the corporate world and was able to focus on my family and building my career in photography. Read more>>

Sam Seeton

Starting Infinite Outdoors was not all glamorous from day one, especially from an employee and manpower perspective. The idea stemmed from spotting a market need though personal experience growing up on a ranch and growing into an avid outdoorsman but the vision was made possible through friends and connections at Colorado School of Mines. The core-4 at the beginning were myself and three other fellow Mines graduates. We knew each other from either playing football at Mines or rooming with members of the team. The three other original equity owners were 4-5 years younger than myself and only a year or two out of school when they were recruited to take on this endeavor, but every well qualified in their areas of expertise. The other three co-founders were paid in a combination of cash and equity in exchange for development work or “sweat equity” in the terms of the founder who would serve as a main point for running the day to day operation. I only vested in equity and worked 50+ hours/ week for the next 2.5 hours as CEO without taking a dime. It wasn’t until 2023 that I finally chose to take a draw and still have invested more of my own money to the business than taken from it (holding several upper-management positions at Anheuser Busch concurrently until the company was larger). Read more>>

Jessica Stokes

Erica and I had a vision to create a space for passionate, like-minded business owners to thrive in a team environment while maintaining and building their own brands. It was important to us to be able to carry the expenses of our business on our own in the beginning so that we would be able to grow organically and make decisions in the best interest of our team without the burden of relying on any of our staff for financial support. This decision allowed us the freedom to take our time in building the right team and gave us grace in the lessons we learned along the way when we needed to eliminate toxic team members. Studio Sage opened its doors with 3 contractors, including both myself and Erica. Within a few years we had grown our team to 17 contractors, including a half dozen up and coming stylists supporting and training in the salon. Read more>>

Janneh Wright

For more than half of the life of PRIMUS, it was one of man show. Just me doing consulting one-off projects for clients. As the workflow started to increase and the demand for my time increased, I knew I could not sustain the work if I did not get help. I battled with the idea of bringing on a partner to share in the revenue instead of hiring an employee. However, that did not work as entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and the people I wanted to partner with were not ready for that type of risk. Read more>>

Barkley Romero

Building a team has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences I’ve encountered as a business owner. During the first year and a half of starting my company, I operated as a solo agent, focusing on proving the concept that building a community and uplifting others leads to organic business growth and personal development. Read more>>

Jose Perez Jr

Being a small, family-run business has been wild. Finding the right employees to help me manage my time, my clientele, and keep me on track is always a little tricky. I have a hard time trusting people so it’s always made sense for me to have some close family on the team. I know I can trust them with the books and with helping me shape the business and my image. Read more>>

Erin Ross

Research shows that building relationships with trusted adults is crucial to support adolescent girls, especially given the mental health crisis facing that population after the pandemic. At Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, our mission is to empower the girls of Los Angeles to tap into their strengths and amplify their talents, transcending stereotypes and systemic barriers to become leaders of today and tomorrow. With such a big mission, we are incredibly intentional about hiring staff that can connect with our girls on a meaningful, personal level and create a space where girls feel empowered to be themselves. As a small team, it is imperative that all staff members can step in and create a safe and engaging space for girls, no matter their role. Some of my favorite times as CEO are sitting with girls making slime while I learn more about their lives and what they enjoy about Girls Inc. Read more>>

Rodolfo Tanara

When i started my business it was just me, since the partner i used to have, decided to step back from taking the risk of starting a company based on un-perfectioned skills and empiric trials and errors. I don’t blame him for this, but it was his loss. Soon my fianceè stepped up to help me on an occasional basis at first, and more and more regularly then. Read more>>

Macee Jones

No! The business was only my business partner Alys and I. Social media helped us a lot. It’s always scary starting something that is so unknown. The first time we posted we had a few people DM us and we were so excited. As time went on we had more interest and then we started the interviewing process. Since day 1, we talked about the type of environment we want for our salon. Positive, uplifting, family, comfortable place. It was cool to see the girls we interviewed and how they were going to benefit our salon. We have THE best staff. If I were to do it over again, I would not stress about hiring. It always ends up working out! Read more>>