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.

Kelsey Tikker Applegate

This is a great question for my business! The salon industry is typically structured one of two ways: commission or booth rental. Hive has had both (employees and non-employees) over our 12 years in business. When I purchased Hive almost six years ago, we had both types. Read more>>

Laura Bostrom

Everyday Order was a one-woman show for 2 years until I brought on help. This helped grow the business because I could take on more jobs, get them done quickly and scale the business. Five years in, I hired our first employee and have grown to a team of 10. Read more>>

Erica Moore-Burton, Esq

No, I didn’t have employees from the beginning, it was me, myself and I! I have been in the legal recruiting industry for over 20 years now, but at the time when I started Round Hill Search, I had just exited a partnership that had gone sour and was really starting from scratch. At the time, I had worked with 3 other recruiting firms and had interviewed with countless others, and there had always been something missing for me in terms of merging business with my personal values. Read more>>

Blake Vaz

A few years ago, when I finally decided to venture out on my own and start my film and video production company, I was a little insecure about whether or not I would be able to find a team that had the same vision and passion for our craft. Read more>>

Kyle Plesa

In the very beginning, it was just me. But I was lucky enough to find someone who today serves as our Vice President of Digital Media. A lot of it was the right timing and simple luck. Read more>>

Amy Guild

In 2010 we were up to our eyeballs in weddings booked and we quickly realized we needed to add associate photographers if we wanted to scale and grow the business. 4 weddings in a weekend was sustainable when we were 21, but surely not forever! I remember getting criticisms from other photographers who thought that if we had associates it would dilute our brand… but the outcome couldn’t be any further from the truth. Read more>>