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.

Tanya Lavache

My business was a one-woman army for years. When work started to become overwhelming, I realized I needed more hands on deck because I wasn’t able to continue moving efficiently as a solo show. I was selective with who I brought on because I was looking for individuals who were hungry and determined. Read more>>

Matthew Stong

When I started my business, it was just me. I baked the bread. delivered it, marketed it, took care of the books, and everything else that went into the business. After a couple of years, the workload was enough to keep me busy around 80-100 hours a week. That’s when I brought on a friend of mine who wanted to learn how building a business works so he could start his own. Read more>>

The Black Fashion

Building a GOOD team is extremely hard to do. We’ve gone through several board members and associates before locking down a core leadership. The one thing we always wanted was anyone who joined our team shared our vision. “anybody can be a model” “fashion is for everyone”. In the fashion industry, most people don’t join for the purpose, they join for the perks. Read more>>

Warren Lentz

In order to start TalentX Entertainment, a Gen Z management company with a lot of TikTok clients, I not only had amazing co-founders I partnered with in 2019, but I also looked far and wide for amazing Talent Coordinators that were hungry and had a passion for all things social media. This may seem obvious, or easy, but it wasn’t. The nature of Talent Management and brand campaigns isn’t rocket science but it is fairly nuanced and requires a relatively high EQ. Read more>>

Mariah Emery

As the co-founder of Integral Partnerships, a therapists owned staffing agency that supports schools and organizations. I learned many things in regard to building a reliable team. Integral Partnerships is more than just filling vacancies. We genuinely invest in finding the best school for the therapist and look at staffing as finding a piece to a missing puzzle. Read more>>

Paul King

Fett’s Toy Depot is a very different working experience… With what we do, you never know what exactly we will be doing, as what kind of event, fan base, or atmosphere. But the most important part, is the TEAM has fun, and makes the kids and adults have a good time. We could be doing a Kid’s night at a local food joint, or at a local blueberry patch, a local apple orchard, singing karaoke in costume, doing crafts with kids. Read more>>