Profitmaker: Hire Learning

Success is a wonderful thing. It means you can continue to do what you want to do (make videos) while profiting by your labor. But when you get to the point where you're always working nights and weekends just to keep up, and you're making enough profit to justify the move, it may be time for you to get some help.

When is the correct moment to hire? A rule of thumb that has worked for this writer is: when you can no longer avoid it. If you can hire a freelancer now and then to work for a day, do so. If you can get a temporary clerical worker to get you past a particularly busy time, do so.

Don't hire a full-time worker for anything less than full-time work. This obviously means that a full- time employee has to generate enough profit to cover his or her paycheck. But consider that an employee also causes you to spend extra time with paperwork like IRS forms and Social Security payments. Dealing with these headaches takes time. Time is money. Your money.

You have to show an employee what to do, like how to use your internal systems (job numbers, tape labeling etiquette, etc.). It is unlikely that you simply will bring a person in and turn him loose. He or she will follow you around for quite a while getting a feel for your business. Training takes time (which equates to your money).

Do you have a particular way that you have set up your tape library? Probably. Have you written down how this system works so that your new employee can refer to it? Probably not. Unless you put this procedure in writing, you can expect a little friction while the new employee learns your way of doing things.