Many businesses come to the table with us because they need cash they don’t have in order to make payroll. More often than not this is a leading need among the small business market. When consulting with these businesses, we learn that they have recently onboarded new employees to perform on a contract award, and the need to pay them before they get paid is pressing hard on their cash flow capabilities. This commonplace conversation topic in our world converges with my knowledge from my former life in staffing, and with that, I have undertaken some research into highlighting pertinent issues and solutions for the market I currently service relative to this discussion.

Where are you using the funds?  

Many, many moons ago (pun, as always, intended), I started my career with a large payroll provider, and one of our talk tracks included the fun fact that payroll is every business’ #1 and biggest operating expense. Fast forward to today, and this is easily applied into 8 out of 10 conversations I have with small and growing GovCons every week. Why? Because pre-invoicing payroll cycles cause a common issue with cash flow. Many lending options cannot assist with this type of capital access, and our lending solutions address this issue. 

Now more than ever it is hard to not only find the best candidate for your available roles, but it is extremely important to pay well, on time, and be competitive with a value-added benefits package. So, the amount that you pay for prime talent is at an all-time high. I know I am preaching to the choir when I say it is very hard to afford the best people, but if this is where you spend the bulk of what you are borrowing, you should be sure you’re choosing wisely. It will no doubt benefit you to do some research into what the wage range is for that proficiency, and decide how far you can go to attract and retain the best in your field.

Who runs your hiring process?

Raise your hand if you are a business owner that moonlights as a CEO, CFO, HR manager, business development and IT extraordinaire? Are any of the above based off of your actual capabilities or are you valiantly trying to save some money and grow? We get it! Our CEO never misses an opportunity to share his experience in attempting to hire specific roles of which he had no foundation on which to stand to be the one to handle that task. Needless to say, he advises not to make the same mistake. You can’t play every role in your business well, so stick to what you know and trust an expert with what you don’t.

All too often in hiring, we look for indicators that have no basis in whether or not who you choose will actually be able to perform at the highest level for what is required. It is always best to have someone trained in HR or staffing, and fully understands your culture and mission (which we will discuss significance next) because all of this together determines if they will or won’t work out. 

Good rule of thumb:

• Know your limitations: do what you do best and outsource the rest
• Don’t hire your friends-especially if the only requirement they fulfill for the role is that you trust them. Relationships can change. Your business is your livelihood, can you trust that your friend will feel the same about it in your absence?
• You should not be the baseline persona by which all other employees are gauged. You can’t hire yourself–so don’t impose your qualities as requirements for the next hire.

Cultural fit rules

Maintaining peace in the workplace can be a defining factor in the success of the business. Negativity can poison the water source quickly so it is always important for your team to maintain sights on the culture mainframe of your business and the source of your mission. 

Sometimes hiring the person with less experience but more relatability to your current staff is the better fit. You can’t train someone to be a certain kind of person, or think a certain way, but you can train them to perform the tasks they are hired to do in the way you desire said performance. So if it comes down to past experience or synergy with your team, choose the latter. 

There is always a risk that whoever you hire won’t work out, but so long as you have a checklist to follow with what you are looking for, skills that can accomplish those requirements, and a deep understanding of your culture and mission, you will be fine. If you are going to spend the bulk of your money on the people who work for you, you should invest the time in developing a plan and checklist that encourages a process to truly find the best people for your team.