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.

Eric Seger

When we first started it was hard for us to calculate exactly what we needed in terms of staff but we had good help from some friends from the industry that helped us out the first period to cover shifts where ever it was needed. We are two persons that both run the business and works in operation, and did so from the beginning. We started with two employees and that is still the size of our core team, but during summer time every year the team extends with another 4 persons because we have a big outdoor patio with twice the amount of seats compared to inside, that we need to take care of. Read more>>

Ray De La Garza

Early in my career, my first real job was working as a van driver at KIIS FM in Los Angeles. I worked my way into the studio and was lucky to work with the morning show host, Rick Dees. Rick gave me the best advice: never to get in the boat alone. When things are good, bring good people with you. Don’t get in the boat alone, thinking you can do everything alone.  Things will go bad, and you will need those people to help guide the boat back on track. I’ve always had great people next to me who can help bring me up. This is the best advice I have ever gotten, and I still use it to this day, Read more>>

Alba Danely

When I first started Our Generation Cares, it wasn’t about hiring, it was about answering a call. In the beginning, it was just me… and youth. These were young people showing up, eager to create, to lead, and to be part of something bigger than themselves. That’s when I realized – we had something powerful here. Something this generation wasn’t being given by the systems around them: real opportunity, real trust, and real community. Read more>>

Nikki Lindgren

I launched Pennock as a consultancy in 2018, shortly after being laid off while pregnant with my third child. Having spent 15 years in eComm growth marketing, I had a solid network and immediately pulled in former colleagues for projects. That worked well… until we grew. Once I exhausted my personal network, I turned to Upwork for help, but quickly realized the talent wasn’t up to par. That’s when I started looking for my first full-time hire. Read more>>