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Business Powerhouse: 4 Ways To Build Your Dream Team

 

As a small business owner, it's of the utmost importance that you understand your company will live or die on the strength of your team. In order to put yourself in a position to succeed, you need to recruit people who are skilled, motivated and possess high moral character. Here's a few tips on how to do just that.

 

 

Finding people with the right skill set

Before you begin the process of recruiting, you need to have a clear understanding of what skill sets you need to facilitate your company's success. As this About Money post points out, if your company is in the business of developing mobile applications, you'll obviously need programmers, but you'll also need someone on your team who can communicate your software's attributes to non-tech savvy consumers. Drilling down your company's specific needs will be very helpful when sorting through potential hires.

 

Character matters

While gauging an applicant's moral fiber is more difficult than testing their aptitude with a particular programming language, character is just as essential to your company's future success. When you go to market, you need to know that the people coming with you are dedicated and honest. If they are not, they can undermine your efforts to establish a trusted brand. In addition to performing a thorough background check, you might consider meeting with the applicants for key roles in your company in a less formal setting, like a coffee shop or bar. In the less pressured environment, you should be able to get a better idea of what their values are.

 

Patience is a virtue

If you find yourself in a situation where you need to fill a position in your company quickly, you may be tempted to lower your hiring standards. While the urge is understandable, especially if you're unable to keep up with rising demand due to staffing limitations, it's one urge that should be suppressed. Hiring the wrong person when you're in a pinch may seem like a good stop gap measure, but bringing someone into your company that you don't feel 100 percent about can have serious consequences for your company's internal cohesion and your relationship with your customers.

 

Don't be afraid to make staffing changes

As an owner, the responsibility of making staffing changes falls upon you. While it's never pleasant to fire someone, you need to be prepared to take decisive action in an instance where an employee's poor performance or policy violations are having a negative impact on their coworkers and your customers. Firing that employee may serve to restore confidence in your leadership and reassure customers that you have a zero-tolerance policy regarding employees who do not prioritize fostering a positive relationship with consumers.

 

 

This article was written by Mario McKellop for CBS Small Business Pulse.

 

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