Questions about my first hire, for experienced hirers/managers

[Young-Gun]

Situation: I'm overworked, risking burnout. Trying to get rid of the tasks I hate/low-value and that don't need me, so I can focus on A) marketing, and B) product delivery/creation.

Main tasks to get off my plate:

1. (1-2 hours per day, 6-7 days a week, but can work from home and be a little flexible about exactly when it's done each day) Answering routine emails for my local business (customer service, first-time enquiries, easy inbound marketing/sales).
2. (Less common, right now maybe 2-4 phone calls per week since I emphasize getting customers to e-mail) Handling phone calls/callbacks, pretty much the same role as #1 but needing phone skills. Another option would just be to direct all phone calls to e-mail us instead to simplify workflow. But it might irritate some customers to not be able to reach a live person on the phone.
3. I need a physical presence at my office about 5 hours per week, but I basically just sit there. This is customer-facing, but the demands are extremely low, they just have to not show up drunk and in 3-day old clothing.
4. The only other thing is, the ability to assess a simple writing sample and give an approximate grade to it. I believe that anyone who can do 1-3 should be trainable to do this skill, and it's not a "life or death" thing.

Total: About 65 hours per month

Other requirements of employee:

1. Flawless english/grammar/spelling (my market demands it).
2. Reliable/punctual/autonomous - the whole point is to reduce stress on me not create it, at least after the initial training period.
3. Hopefully, in for the long-term and willing to take on more and more tasks or hours per week as I grow.

Financials: Right now I can afford to spend up to $1000/mo before tax on first part-time employee (that's including initial training, ongoing training, and bonuses for the year.)

Let's take out 15% for training and bonuses. I wish it was more, but lets say 15%.

Leaves $850 per month budget. Divide by 65 hours of work per month.
That gives $13 per hour, as my budget.
I think that seems about right, as I was estimating $12.50/hr as an appropriate starting rate for this.

My concerns (Am I right to be concerned? What should I be doing?)

1. Answering customer contacts is a daily task, will I need to have two employees before I'm able to have e-mails answered every day?
2. I will violate some law or forget some tax requirement or just generally get myself into trouble since all the beaureocracy seems to make small business difficult
3. Employee will be unreliable after the honeymoon period, or will quit unexpectedly not even giving 2 weeks notice and leading to loss of customers and ruining the business

My questions for experienced hirers/business builders/personnel managers:
Let me know if you need any clarification or more information

1. Can you read this plan over and tell me how it looks?
2. Where should I hire from? Temp-to-hire, Craigslist, College intern, stay-at-home mom, lively retired person... who will do a great job for me?
3. What do I need to watch out for? What am I not considering?

So, just looking for general feedback from people who have been where I'm standing, with my business doing well, feeling that there's a much larger market, this is scalable, and a real opportunity, but I'm young and overworked and never have managed people before, or dealt with the risk of employing someone, and this is the biggest monthly business expense I've ever considered, and in fact this one part-time hire is anticipated to triple my monthly overhead...
...but, at the point I've reached, there is no way forward but the leverage of other people's time.. so ... onward~!!!!

 

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[johnp]

1. Where should I hire from? Temp-to-hire, Craigslist, College intern, stay-at-home mom, lively retired person... who will do a great job for me?

I run a staffing company and an online employment network. I would be happy to generate you some good leads in exchange for a testimonial. I haven't reached down into the TX area, but I can easily find people for you. Feel free to PM me the job details.

 

[SteveO]

You will need to pay for employee taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation insurance also. I basically figure that it costs me $21/hour for a $14/hour person. You will be adding in more mundane work for yourself for payroll as well. Unless you want to go to a payroll service which you will need to budget for as well. After sick time and vacation, you might as well figure around $24-26/hour.

 

[Young-Gun]

You will need to pay for employee taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation insurance also. I basically figure that it costs me $21/hour for a $14/hour person. You will be adding in more mundane work for yourself for payroll as well. Unless you want to go to a payroll service which you will need to budget for as well. After sick time and vacation, you might as well figure around $24-26/hour.

Employee taxes - is this the 7.5% of wages thing?

Unemployement insurance - something employers "get to" pay the government for the "luxury" of being an employer? No way around this even if it's a part-time worker? How is it calculated, or how much is it?

Worker's comp - noob question, will this be cheaper since it's part-time, 50% work from home, and very, very little chance of physical injury on the job?

Payroll - I figure, I'll handle it by myself + software program, until I have enough work coming in, and enough employees, to pay an inhouse manager to take over my role. At least, that's the working plan.

Thanks much for the advice. I'm so annoyed that it will cost that much, but better to know now.

Looking for serious ways to lower the cost here.. who has recommendations or brilliant ideas on how to lower the cost of part-time e-mail customer service for a local business??? (written and spoken English must be flawless and employee must be dependable)..

I also had a small epiphany:

Rather than ask my first employee for 100% of the existing customer service work to be done (unrealistic for many reasons and expensive) I should plan to have my first employee handle 50% of the customer service stuff. This will help me develop my protocols for interaction between 2 customer-service employees; essentially I will be the "second employee." One person was never going to be enough anyway because the work is daily and continual.. only an owner or stake-holder would hustle enough to do it every day the way I do. Also, especially with the additional costs mentioned by SteveO, I shouldn't expect to hire for 100% of the work I need now. So, I'll have to keep hustling and remain patient, but this would free up enough time to do additional marketing or working "On" the business. Then, when there's a bit more business coming in I can hire the second employee and get 100% of this work covered by other people.

 

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[SteveO]

You can call a payroll service company to get most of your questions answered on costs. Don't miss the Workers Comp. I was sued once and had to settle. If someone is working, stands up and hurts their back, it is on workers comp. Don't make it be on you.

I found payroll to be very mundane. It may go against what you are trying to accomplish.

 

[Young-Gun]

You can call a payroll service company to get most of your questions answered on costs. Don't miss the Workers Comp. I was sued once and had to settle. If someone is working, stands up and hurts their back, it is on workers comp. Don't make it be on you.

I found payroll to be very mundane. It may go against what you are trying to accomplish.

Ok, more good advice.

It has suddenly made me reconsider the idea of using a staffing agency rather than trying to find my own employee from scratch.

I initially wanted to avoid an agency. Now I'm thinking, with due diligence to find a well-reviewed agency and get the right worker(s) from them, it could be the right move.

• Sort of alleviates some concern about personally finding and training an employee from scratch, then they disappear and no way to replace them quickly - the temp agency can hopefully send me a new, half-trained employee the next day
• People skills aren't necessarily my top skill, so this helps take at least some guesswork out of finding the right person the first time through interviewing - It's my first business - maybe I should let someone else help me find employees
• Help with compliance/taxes/govt/payroll. Should streamline/simplify/reduce complexity to use a staffing agency over "craigslist" method

Really interested in feedback from people who have hired from multiple sources before- will the staffing agency help or hurt me, vs. trying to make my first part-time hire from scratch off of Craigslist? Keep in mind I feel absurdly busy so, the staffing agency is looking more and more tempting..

 

[SteveO]

More information from me.

I have used staffing companies many times. It avoids all the hassle of employees but the level that I want was rarely there. It is a good way to go for your needs.

You can look at contract employees as well.

Adding employees adds more complexity than you might think.

 

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[Young-Gun]

More information from me.

I have used staffing companies many times. It avoids all the hassle of employees but the level that I want was rarely there. It is a good way to go for your needs.

You can look at contract employees as well.

Adding employees adds more complexity than you might think.

Ok, this might have been the thought that uncorked my current problem.

I took action and researched top-rated staffing companies in Austin. Then, filtered down what I thought were the top 2 and contacted them with my needs. One appointment has been set up for next Monday to discuss in more depth. Meanwhile I'm revising exactly what I need.

I think the staffing company could solve several issues at once!!!

One of the things I'm most excited about is, this might allow me to cover almost 365 days of the year with other people doing the part of the job I currently hate most and do that sooner, rather than later.

Truly, my customer service requirements a terrible job for any one employee:

- need to work almost 365 days a year with no vacation days
- hours are super-weird: need to respond in morning, afternoon, and late evening (many sudden reschedules happen late at night)
- not enough hours to be a full-time commitment (about 14 hours per week)
- need to be dependable, organized, trained, enthusiastic, accountable

Doesn't it seem like a staffing agency will be a good solution? As always, I'm interested in things I'm not seeing.

But here's the kicker -
I had another "epiphany" that's more like remembering something brilliant that someone else said, I cannot remember at all who said it:

But basically, have my employee also add a mundane task or two that is going to directly result in increased sales sufficient to completely pay for the cost of hiring the new employee.

It's so simple and I don't know why I didn't think of it till I went for a walk yesterday in the beautiful, mellow afternoon sun. Down all the gravel paths and quiet streets of this beautiful neighborhood.

To de-riskify the hiring of my first employee, the steps for me will be:

1. Hire from a respected, well-reviewed agency, instead of doing it all myself and risking a bad noob decision (remember I'm also pretty introverted and less people-oriented). Spend somewhat more per hour, but for a huge amount of convenience/time-saving, and increased reliability and options because of the depth of using an agency.
2. In the process, I will improve my people-management skills for later on in the business, but without risking a catastrophic failure at this key moment by trying to hire my first employee from scratch and dump the success of my business and my rent payments upon them
3. Think up a couple new "menial" tasks that will generate additional business sufficient to more-than-pay for all costs of hiring the part-time employee through the agency, greatly reducing the risk of this employee becoming unsustainable

I love marketing, and thinking of how to convince new customers to buy, so this frees me up not only to grow my business, but to discard a part I really hate, take on a little more responsibility in return, get more free time, and spend it right back on a possible exponential and fun growth element of the business.

Just want to thank the whole damn forum and MJ for psyching me up every day and giving me a place to work out my thoughts!!!

I'm hungry for feedback and ideas - especially labor-saving, profit-increasing, risk-reducing ideas!!