Let’s face it, every business owner struggles with staffing issues.  The most common struggle is where to find that right person for the job.   You’d be surprised to know the answer to this question.   Surprisingly, the best time to hire somebody is when you can least afford it, because if you're a solopreneur (aka a “one-arm paper hanger”) let’s face it, everything revolves around and you’re probably the bottleneck in your firm.

If this is you, what you have is a high paying job versus a real business. To have a business you need systems. You need predictable systems. You also need people that you can delegate some of the non-revenue producing activities to, to free up your time.

Because if you're a business owner, you should be spending most of your day generating leads and talking to qualified prospects, making it rain, not actually working IN your business. You should be working ON your business, and in order to do that, you need help from team members that you can delegate to.

So when should you do that? When should you hire that person? When you least can't afford it. Because something magical happens when someone is on payroll and you need to make that payroll every Friday or every other Friday, you start figuring things out on how to bring revenue into your firm.

It's very, very interesting what happens when you have someone on payroll. All of a sudden marketing becomes top priority. After all, just like oxygen is essential to life, marketing is the oxygen for your business.

The other thing business owners ask me all the time is “Michael, where do I recruit? How do I find my next new team member?” Now, this is counterintuitive because I don't recommend using ZipRecruiter. I don't recommend using Indeed. I don’t recommend using LinkedIn.

Here’s what I do recommend. You have a plethora of emails from referral sources and past and current clients. Use your current database as a jumping off point and send an email with the subject line, “We’re expanding…” And put it in a small description of the type of person you're looking for, because I bet you that someone in your database, someone in your world, could be a current client, could be an associate. It could be a referral source that knows just the perfect person they have in mind that would be a great fit for you and your business.

As you implement this hiring strategy you will see your business grow, just like I did. I grew my company from being a solopreneur to 135 employees. Keep following the blog for valuable information that will help you run a successful tax practice.