When you start an e-commerce business, the possibilities seem endless. It’s an exciting journey and when you take those first important steps, you know you’re on the right path.
Whether it’s completing your first big bulk order or needing to hire your first employee, these “firsts” help motivate the driven business owner in you.
Speaking of your first hire, it’s not exactly a simple process. This guide will help you source and hire the best possible candidate to grow your small (but growing) ecommerce team.
How to make your first hire: tips and tricks for finding the best solution
If you’ve never hired someone before, it’s a pretty intimidating process. How do you find someone who will truly understand your business and your evolving goals?
Although each scenario is unique, as an e-commerce business grows, help is needed to ensure greater productivity and, therefore, high revenue. Once you reach this point, the range of accomplishments will start to widen and without a recruiting plan, you could quickly fall behind.
Unfortunately, this could impact your reputation. A recent investigation found that online reviews have been shown to impact 93% of purchasing decisions. So you can imagine the impact of a few bad reviews on your business.
This brings us to the first step: deciding what you need to delegate and how often. By determining what you need to delegate, you can define the qualifications required, as well as the expected budget. Most often, the first employee hired by an ecommerce business is someone who helps get products to customers while supporting growth (i.e. a marketing expert or customer service representative /Sales).
If you need 10 to 30 hours per week, it may be ideal to invest in an independent contractor or third-party provider. This will allow you to save on certain salary and benefit obligations.
Overall, you need to sit down and ask yourself:
- West My necessary attention and what are My weaknesses?
- What areas of my business need attention to grow this year?
- What can I afford in terms of current cash flow?
Before you even start looking for your first hire, you need to have clear goals in mind. This way, you can find the best possible person to help you achieve these goals.
How will I find my first employee?
If you often collaborate with other ecommerce business owners, reach out to them and ask if they can recommend someone to help you. Word of mouth is often the best approach. You can also post a job offer on your social media accounts. This can be effective because your audience is not only qualified, but already knows your brand.
However, if you can’t find an employee using this approach, simply go to professional forums, online classifieds, or even employee websites (think LinkedIn). After posting an ad, you may find that you have hundreds of responses. At this point, you should know exactly what you’re looking for. Narrow it down to 3-4 candidates, then ask relevant questions.
What types of questions should I ask?
Again, this will vary from company to company. In your case, you need to decide who your ideal candidate would be. What types of experiences and skills would they have? Do they need to know x, y and z? If you have a rough “profile” in mind, it will make the interview process much easier.
You must write questions that are 100% relevant to you and your business. However, the following sample questions will help you get the old wheels turning:
- Over the past few years, e-commerce has evolved: where do you see the trends evolving and how will this support [your company]?
- Off the top of my head, what are 2 or 3 approaches we could use to increase customer retention?
- List three of your favorite ecommerce companies and why you chose them. What sets them apart?
- What do you like about [your company]? What do you don’t like and what changes would you make to improve what you don’t like?
- What achievement are you most proud of, in your career or otherwise?
- What do you do for fun and how do your interests impact your professional life?
Even though the possible questions are endless, never doubt your intuition. If you don’t find the right solution right away, don’t rush. Hire short-term help for simple tasks you’d like to delegate while you continue your search for the “perfect” hire.
What’s the “perfect” rental anyway?
The answer to this question is not black and white. Even if you’re looking for specific traits, overall you’ll want to hire someone who:
- Is aligned with your overall vision and mission. If you sell eco-friendly beauty products, for example, it’s important to hire someone who is passionate about sustainable living and the beauty industry as a whole. If your employee is passionate about promoting your products, it will help you achieve greater growth.
- Is responsible…mainly in the sense that they take pride and ownership in the work they do.
- Is innovative, but eager to learn. Remember, the ecommerce space is constantly evolving, so you need to hire someone who is adaptable and detail-oriented.
Ultimately, you’ll need someone who is at least somewhat tech savvy, very passionate, enthusiastic, creative, and reliable. Once you find the ideal candidate, actively work to become the best leader and teacher you can be.
After all, Tammy Cohen said it best: “A good employee is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have.”