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.

Shannon Westblade

When I first took over the bed and breakfast I tried to change very little from how my dad did things. I even carried over some of the same employees, and some of those worked out fine. I was 28 my first season at the Inn – my dad had died the year before, and I had only worked middle-management before so I did not have experience managing or hiring employees. When I started I hired all via word-of-mouth or recommendations from the people around me. I didn’t have a process, I didn’t really interview, I didn’t have an application. In a business this small and casual it isn’t unusual to basically have no hiring process, so I just went with what had been done around me and before me in at the Inn. This worked out for some employees, but did not work at all for others. Read more>>

Dane Austin

Like so many residential designers, I started as a solopreneur, wearing all the hats—designer, project manager, bookkeeper, marketing director, and client concierge. While I loved the creative side of the business, I quickly realized that if I wanted to grow and provide the level of service my clients deserved, I couldn’t do it alone. Read more>>

Love Wahlen

After my small online business expanded into a retail location, I realized that I was being stretched thin and my time and energy were being squandered.  I was not able to give 100% of myself to any one specific task.  The tasks of running a brick-and-mortar store can be daunting- from designing and producing jewelry to photographing and merchandising the products to the less-seen tasks like advertising, bookkeeping, and countless other tasks.  Being in charge of all of these tasks leaves little room for creative endeavors that is where my passion for this business began.  Read more>>