April 18, 2024 • 16 mins
Ever felt like expanding your team is a luxury you can't afford? Get ready to challenge that notion.
Join me, Tonya D. Harrison, on the Operations Toolbox podcast, where we debunk the myth that expanding your team is just for the bigwigs.
In this episode, we're smashing through the barriers of team expansion on a budget. Discover savvy strategies to build your dream team without emptying your wallet. Drawing from my own journey, I'll spill the beans on tapping into cost-effective ways to find like-minded team players who are ready to jump on board your vision train.
Tune in, and take the first step toward constructing a powerhouse team that's both affordable and unstoppable.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya D. (00:00):
Are you ready to build a team in your business, but
the math just ain't mathing.
I mean, you run the numbers andyou look at it and you figure
there's absolutely no way I canhire the people that I need to
hire in order to drive mybusiness forward.
(00:21):
Well, in today's episode, we'rediving into the most crucial
aspect of building a successfulbusiness, which is assembling
your dream team.
But here's the twist we'redoing it all on a budget.
We are going to explorepractical strategies to help you
(00:42):
recruit top talent, fostercollaboration and drive your
business forward withoutbreaking the bank.
You ready?
Welcome to the OperationsToolbox podcast.
I'm your host, tanya D Harrison.
Let's create version 2.0 ofyour business, and this is the
(01:05):
version that is called growthwithout burnout.
So let's get started.
Here's the reality While mostof us start as solopreneurs, in
order to effectively build ourbusiness, scale our business,
grow our business, our business.
(01:27):
Scale our business, grow ourbusiness we really need to have
support, and that support is inthe way of a team.
Many of us are able to go yearswithout having a team, but if
we really want to see ourbusiness grow and we really want
to make sure we do it in a waythat is not causing us to burn
(01:49):
ourselves out.
We need to make sure we arebringing people along with us on
a journey, and that's a team.
The reality of it is there'sonly 24 hours in a day and you
cannot spend the entire 24 hoursworking in your business.
At some point, you are going tohave to get relief where you
(02:13):
have a support system thatincludes a team if you're really
looking to grow your business.
This doesn't apply to peoplewho want to be a freelancer.
That's their goal to be afreelancer.
That's their goal to be afreelancer.
That is fine.
But if you are trying to builda business, you are going to
need a team, and it can bereally difficult to hire a team
(02:38):
when you are on a strict budget.
Today, we're really going todig in and share some strategies
that you could use to getpeople that you need that go
beyond having just a warm body.
The very first thing we want todo is we want to talk about the
(03:01):
foundation for your dream team.
To talk about the foundationfor your dream team.
We can't just bring people intoany old environment.
They need to be brought into abusiness that is really going to
allow them to shine and allowthem to thrive.
That's what you're hiring themfor.
The very first thing you want todo is start with a vision,
(03:23):
define your business goals andthe roles needed to achieve them
.
Having a clear vision is goingto guide you during the hiring
process and is going to ensurealignment with your objectives.
Again, we are not doing thewarm body syndrome.
(03:43):
We're not doing that.
We want people that are trulyin alignment with where it is
that we are headed.
In order to do that, you haveto be crystal clear on your
vision and what your goals are,and then you can start to
identify the people that youneed to come beside you to help
(04:06):
you get there.
One of the things that Irecommend to my clients is to
sketch your organization chart.
What does it look like?
What do you want it to looklike?
This is a part of you creatingthe vision, casting the vision
for your business.
If you see yourself an adminassistant, a social media
(04:33):
manager, whatever that lookslike, put it on paper.
The next thing I want you to dois, once you do all of that you
have your vision, you have yourorg chart I want you identify
essential skills.
Again, we're talking aboutskills that are needed in order
(04:55):
to help you get to where it isyou need to go, determine the
key skills and expertiserequired for each role and
expertise required for each role.
We want to focus on hiringindividuals who possess these
core competencies to maximizeefficiency and effectiveness.
(05:15):
Now, now that we've laid thefoundation, we know where we're
going, we know what we need, weknow the skills that we need.
We want to write out a jobdescription.
What would you like for each ofthese team members to be
responsible for?
One of the things that I wantto remind you is you have to be
(05:40):
crystal clear in business.
Planning is a huge part ofbusiness success.
This is building the foundationto bring the right person on
within your business.
Now I want to share with you acouple of different ways that
you could bring people in yourbusiness that are going to be in
(06:02):
alignment with your vision,your objectives and your goals,
and they're going to help youtake your business to the next
level.
While all of them may not befree, it is the most
cost-effective way I've found toto bring people on board.
The first method I want to sharewith you, or the first strategy
(06:25):
I want to share with you is tobother skills or services.
This is one that is oftenoverlooked, but I'm not quite
sure why you want to look foropportunities to exchange skills
or services with otherprofessionals or businesses.
This is something that I didinitially within my business.
(06:47):
This is something that I'vedone after I even got going in
my business.
For instance, I have a businessbestie who is a I say, a
marketing guru.
She does marketing andrelationship building.
I do operations.
(07:09):
We have literally bought herservices, where she has provided
me with marketing support andinsight and I have provided her
with operations support andinsight and I have provided her
with operations, insight andservices.
So we actually have this skillset that we just share amongst
(07:30):
each other, and I've done itwith other people as well.
Think about the people that areclose to you.
Think about the people thatmaybe have something that you
need and you have something thatthey need and you could
literally trade services.
(07:51):
Right, it could be whateveryour business is.
If you do taxes and somebodyelse does graphic design and
websites, you could barterservices.
Think outside of the box whenyou are trying to bring people
in.
That's the first strategy.
(08:12):
The second one is your network.
Tap into your network.
Leverage your personal andprofessional networks.
Think about people that you'veworked with in the past, or you
can seek referrals andrecommendations for potential
team members.
(08:33):
The benefit to this is you knowwhat you are getting.
You've worked with these people.
Know what you are getting.
You've worked with these people.
You know them, you know theirwork ethic, you know their
output.
You missed the whole part ofgoing through and looking for
somebody and hiring them, andall of that because you already
(08:55):
know certain things.
Now you just need to make surethat they align with your vision
.
For instance, my executiveassistant.
I knew her before we startedworking together.
She actually worked in thechurch's administrative office.
I already knew a lot about her.
I knew her work output.
(09:16):
I knew her ethics.
I knew that she would besomeone that would align with my
vision.
I had the conversation with her, we agreed, and five, six years
later, we're still workingtogether.
So tap into your network.
Option you want to consider isinterns or students and local
(09:40):
work programs.
When it comes to interns orstudents, this could be a paid
intern or a free internship.
Either way, you have anopportunity to bring on some
very skilled talent if you arewilling to do some training.
When you are looking forinterns or students, you can go
(10:03):
to local universities or college.
Now, remember, the great thingabout them is, aside from
bringing in the skills that youneed, they often bring fresh
perspectives and are willing towork again for lower pay or even
free, because they're gettingsome type of academic credit.
When it comes to the localprograms within your area, you
(10:26):
definitely want to look out forthose, because they offer grants
to businesses.
Some of these local programswill pay the salary of the
person that you are bringing onboard if you are willing to do
some on-the-job training.
Some of them may not have agrant, but they have people that
(10:48):
have the skills that you needand they are trying to re-enter
the workforce or go into adifferent industry.
Either way, you are able to getsome valuable talent people
that have the skills that youneed to perform certain types of
jobs, as long as you arewilling to do some on-the-job
(11:10):
training.
This is where your standardoperating procedures are going
to be extremely beneficialMaking sure that you have these
when you onboard people, so thatyou are not using a lot of your
time to train.
You definitely want to makesure you have these in place,
but this is a resource that youwant to tap.
(11:31):
Interns, students, local workprograms Head over to your local
university and colleges andcheck out what they have
available.
The next strategy is leveragingfreelancers or contractors.
This is where you're going togo to Fiverr or Upwork or some
(11:52):
type of platform that offers adiverse pool of talent at a
competitive rate.
I have found some really greattalent on Fiverr and Upwork.
If you have a specific taskthat needs to be done, you can
literally go out and hiresomeone for that, like I have
(12:15):
had people that I've hired towork on my website to do
specific things within mybusiness.
They complete that task or thatproject, I pay them and then
that's it.
You can do the same thing withanything.
If you need a flyer created, ifyou need admin hours, there's
different ways that you couldget people on board to do
(12:37):
specific tasks.
So what are the things I wantyou to do?
Is I want you to really thinkabout again where it is that
you're going, what are theskills that you need, who it is
that you need to come alongsideof you, whether it's long-term
or short-term, in order to getyou to the next level.
So what is that goal that youare trying to achieve and what
(13:00):
and who do you need on board toachieve it?
The last thing that I want totalk about is investing in skill
development.
We have to be always willing toupskill ourselves, and if we
have a team, upskill our team.
Whether you are going to onlinecourses or workshops, seminars,
(13:25):
conferences, whatever it is, youwant to put yourself in a state
of continuous learning, becausethis is something else that
fosters growth and innovationwithin your organization, and if
you have teams, you want topass that along to your teams.
This may not necessarily bepeople that are there for a
(13:47):
short term, for a project, andthings like that.
I'm talking about long-termteam members.
The other thing is you want toempower team autonomy.
When you bring team members on,whether it's short-term or
long-term you don't want to haveto babysit them.
(14:09):
You want to be able to givethem a certain amount of
autonomy.
So part of this is making surethat you have the right
processes in place so that theyare trained accordingly, and
then also making sure that youare available to help them along
the journey, being available toanswer questions or whatever it
(14:33):
is that that looks like, andI'll talk more about that in
another episode, but with thisepisode I really want you to
start thinking about creativeways that you could start
building your team that is notgoing to break the bank.
So really quickly, just goingback through Number one, you can
bother skills or services.
(14:54):
Number two you can hire internsor students or look to your
local work programs.
Number three you can leveragefreelancers and contractors.
These are three ways that youcan start building your team
right now without breaking thebank.
As a solopreneur, building yourdream team on a budget is not
(15:20):
only achievable, but it isessential for your business's
success.
By leveraging some of thestrategies discussed, you can
assemble a high performing teamthat drives your business
forward.
Remember, it's not about thesize of your team, but the
quality of the talent and havinga shared vision that propels
(15:46):
you toward your entrepreneurialdreams.
Thanks for tuning in to theOperations Toolbox podcast.
Until next time, keep buildingand thriving.
Are you ready to build a team in your business, but
the math just ain't mathing.
I mean, you run the numbers andyou look at it and you figure
there's absolutely no way I canhire the people that I need to
hire in order to drive mybusiness forward.
(00:21):
Well, in today's episode, we'rediving into the most crucial
aspect of building a successfulbusiness, which is assembling
your dream team.
But here's the twist we'redoing it all on a budget.
We are going to explorepractical strategies to help you
(00:42):
recruit top talent, fostercollaboration and drive your
business forward withoutbreaking the bank.
You ready?
Welcome to the OperationsToolbox podcast.
I'm your host, tanya D Harrison.
Let's create version 2.0 ofyour business, and this is the
(01:05):
version that is called growthwithout burnout.
So let's get started.
Here's the reality While mostof us start as solopreneurs, in
order to effectively build ourbusiness, scale our business,
grow our business, our business.
(01:27):
Scale our business, grow ourbusiness we really need to have
support, and that support is inthe way of a team.
Many of us are able to go yearswithout having a team, but if
we really want to see ourbusiness grow and we really want
to make sure we do it in a waythat is not causing us to burn
(01:49):
ourselves out.
We need to make sure we arebringing people along with us on
a journey, and that's a team.
The reality of it is there'sonly 24 hours in a day and you
cannot spend the entire 24 hoursworking in your business.
At some point, you are going tohave to get relief where you
(02:13):
have a support system thatincludes a team if you're really
looking to grow your business.
This doesn't apply to peoplewho want to be a freelancer.
That's their goal to be afreelancer.
That's their goal to be afreelancer.
That is fine.
But if you are trying to builda business, you are going to
need a team, and it can bereally difficult to hire a team
(02:38):
when you are on a strict budget.
Today, we're really going todig in and share some strategies
that you could use to getpeople that you need that go
beyond having just a warm body.
The very first thing we want todo is we want to talk about the
(03:01):
foundation for your dream team.
To talk about the foundationfor your dream team.
We can't just bring people intoany old environment.
They need to be brought into abusiness that is really going to
allow them to shine and allowthem to thrive.
That's what you're hiring themfor.
The very first thing you want todo is start with a vision,
(03:23):
define your business goals andthe roles needed to achieve them
.
Having a clear vision is goingto guide you during the hiring
process and is going to ensurealignment with your objectives.
Again, we are not doing thewarm body syndrome.
(03:43):
We're not doing that.
We want people that are trulyin alignment with where it is
that we are headed.
In order to do that, you haveto be crystal clear on your
vision and what your goals are,and then you can start to
identify the people that youneed to come beside you to help
(04:06):
you get there.
One of the things that Irecommend to my clients is to
sketch your organization chart.
What does it look like?
What do you want it to looklike?
This is a part of you creatingthe vision, casting the vision
for your business.
If you see yourself an adminassistant, a social media
(04:33):
manager, whatever that lookslike, put it on paper.
The next thing I want you to dois, once you do all of that you
have your vision, you have yourorg chart I want you identify
essential skills.
Again, we're talking aboutskills that are needed in order
(04:55):
to help you get to where it isyou need to go, determine the
key skills and expertiserequired for each role and
expertise required for each role.
We want to focus on hiringindividuals who possess these
core competencies to maximizeefficiency and effectiveness.
(05:15):
Now, now that we've laid thefoundation, we know where we're
going, we know what we need, weknow the skills that we need.
We want to write out a jobdescription.
What would you like for each ofthese team members to be
responsible for?
One of the things that I wantto remind you is you have to be
(05:40):
crystal clear in business.
Planning is a huge part ofbusiness success.
This is building the foundationto bring the right person on
within your business.
Now I want to share with you acouple of different ways that
you could bring people in yourbusiness that are going to be in
(06:02):
alignment with your vision,your objectives and your goals,
and they're going to help youtake your business to the next
level.
While all of them may not befree, it is the most
cost-effective way I've found toto bring people on board.
The first method I want to sharewith you, or the first strategy
(06:25):
I want to share with you is tobother skills or services.
This is one that is oftenoverlooked, but I'm not quite
sure why you want to look foropportunities to exchange skills
or services with otherprofessionals or businesses.
This is something that I didinitially within my business.
(06:47):
This is something that I'vedone after I even got going in
my business.
For instance, I have a businessbestie who is a I say, a
marketing guru.
She does marketing andrelationship building.
I do operations.
(07:09):
We have literally bought herservices, where she has provided
me with marketing support andinsight and I have provided her
with operations support andinsight and I have provided her
with operations, insight andservices.
So we actually have this skillset that we just share amongst
(07:30):
each other, and I've done itwith other people as well.
Think about the people that areclose to you.
Think about the people thatmaybe have something that you
need and you have something thatthey need and you could
literally trade services.
(07:51):
Right, it could be whateveryour business is.
If you do taxes and somebodyelse does graphic design and
websites, you could barterservices.
Think outside of the box whenyou are trying to bring people
in.
That's the first strategy.
(08:12):
The second one is your network.
Tap into your network.
Leverage your personal andprofessional networks.
Think about people that you'veworked with in the past, or you
can seek referrals andrecommendations for potential
team members.
(08:33):
The benefit to this is you knowwhat you are getting.
You've worked with these people.
Know what you are getting.
You've worked with these people.
You know them, you know theirwork ethic, you know their
output.
You missed the whole part ofgoing through and looking for
somebody and hiring them, andall of that because you already
(08:55):
know certain things.
Now you just need to make surethat they align with your vision
.
For instance, my executiveassistant.
I knew her before we startedworking together.
She actually worked in thechurch's administrative office.
I already knew a lot about her.
I knew her work output.
(09:16):
I knew her ethics.
I knew that she would besomeone that would align with my
vision.
I had the conversation with her, we agreed, and five, six years
later, we're still workingtogether.
So tap into your network.
Option you want to consider isinterns or students and local
(09:40):
work programs.
When it comes to interns orstudents, this could be a paid
intern or a free internship.
Either way, you have anopportunity to bring on some
very skilled talent if you arewilling to do some training.
When you are looking forinterns or students, you can go
(10:03):
to local universities or college.
Now, remember, the great thingabout them is, aside from
bringing in the skills that youneed, they often bring fresh
perspectives and are willing towork again for lower pay or even
free, because they're gettingsome type of academic credit.
When it comes to the localprograms within your area, you
(10:26):
definitely want to look out forthose, because they offer grants
to businesses.
Some of these local programswill pay the salary of the
person that you are bringing onboard if you are willing to do
some on-the-job training.
Some of them may not have agrant, but they have people that
(10:48):
have the skills that you needand they are trying to re-enter
the workforce or go into adifferent industry.
Either way, you are able to getsome valuable talent people
that have the skills that youneed to perform certain types of
jobs, as long as you arewilling to do some on-the-job
(11:10):
training.
This is where your standardoperating procedures are going
to be extremely beneficialMaking sure that you have these
when you onboard people, so thatyou are not using a lot of your
time to train.
You definitely want to makesure you have these in place,
but this is a resource that youwant to tap.
(11:31):
Interns, students, local workprograms Head over to your local
university and colleges andcheck out what they have
available.
The next strategy is leveragingfreelancers or contractors.
This is where you're going togo to Fiverr or Upwork or some
(11:52):
type of platform that offers adiverse pool of talent at a
competitive rate.
I have found some really greattalent on Fiverr and Upwork.
If you have a specific taskthat needs to be done, you can
literally go out and hiresomeone for that, like I have
(12:15):
had people that I've hired towork on my website to do
specific things within mybusiness.
They complete that task or thatproject, I pay them and then
that's it.
You can do the same thing withanything.
If you need a flyer created, ifyou need admin hours, there's
different ways that you couldget people on board to do
(12:37):
specific tasks.
So what are the things I wantyou to do?
Is I want you to really thinkabout again where it is that
you're going, what are theskills that you need, who it is
that you need to come alongsideof you, whether it's long-term
or short-term, in order to getyou to the next level.
So what is that goal that youare trying to achieve and what
(13:00):
and who do you need on board toachieve it?
The last thing that I want totalk about is investing in skill
development.
We have to be always willing toupskill ourselves, and if we
have a team, upskill our team.
Whether you are going to onlinecourses or workshops, seminars,
(13:25):
conferences, whatever it is, youwant to put yourself in a state
of continuous learning, becausethis is something else that
fosters growth and innovationwithin your organization, and if
you have teams, you want topass that along to your teams.
This may not necessarily bepeople that are there for a
(13:47):
short term, for a project, andthings like that.
I'm talking about long-termteam members.
The other thing is you want toempower team autonomy.
When you bring team members on,whether it's short-term or
long-term you don't want to haveto babysit them.
(14:09):
You want to be able to givethem a certain amount of
autonomy.
So part of this is making surethat you have the right
processes in place so that theyare trained accordingly, and
then also making sure that youare available to help them along
the journey, being available toanswer questions or whatever it
(14:33):
is that that looks like, andI'll talk more about that in
another episode, but with thisepisode I really want you to
start thinking about creativeways that you could start
building your team that is notgoing to break the bank.
So really quickly, just goingback through Number one, you can
bother skills or services.
(14:54):
Number two you can hire internsor students or look to your
local work programs.
Number three you can leveragefreelancers and contractors.
These are three ways that youcan start building your team
right now without breaking thebank.
As a solopreneur, building yourdream team on a budget is not
(15:20):
only achievable, but it isessential for your business's
success.
By leveraging some of thestrategies discussed, you can
assemble a high performing teamthat drives your business
forward.
Remember, it's not about thesize of your team, but the
quality of the talent and havinga shared vision that propels
(15:46):
you toward your entrepreneurialdreams.
Thanks for tuning in to theOperations Toolbox podcast.
Until next time, keep buildingand thriving.
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