Chapter 22. Finding and Hiring

In This Chapter

• Assigning and understanding staff duties

• Independent contractors versus employees

• Where to find and hire employees

• How to keep good employees

• How to get free help

Sooner or later, your online business will grow to a point that you need to hire additional help. You're starting to spend too much of your time doing administrative tasks, such as packaging, shipping, and customer support, when you should be spending your time managing and growing your business. Store owners sometimes find themselves getting burned out by trying to handle every aspect of their business themselves (accounting, shipping, packaging, customer support, inventory control, marketing, and so on).

Knowing when to call in the cavalry not only will save your sanity, but also will enable you to concentrate on growing and operating your business.

Ask yourself these questions before you start the hiring process:

• Do I need full-time, part-time, or intermittent help?

• Do I need specific help, such as in accounting, or someone who can do a variety of task (answer phones, run errands, process orders, and so on)?

• Is physical location important? Do I need that person to come to my location, or can that person work from home or offsite? And do I have the space for that person to work in my home?

In this chapter, we cover everything from where to find help to staff duties.