When I first started my online business, I couldn’t imagine myself having employees or even contractors working for me.
I thought I’d be a solopreneur enjoying the work from home lifestyle forever, but the reality is that having a team of outside contractors can help shortcut your business’ growth and save time. And sometimes investing in your business can be fraught with mistakes, bad hires, and unfulfilled contracts.
But before you hire your next contractor, employee, coach, virtual assistant, or babysitter… you need to watch this video to find out my top tip for hiring.
Hiring For Small Business – My #1 Tip
Before Your Next Hire…
Before you get on the phone to talk to your next potential hire, whether that’s a copywriter, web designer, consultant, videographer, or virtual assistant… make sure that you forgive anyone you’ve worked with in the past.
In my web design days, I saw this a lot: a potential client would bring up all the things their previous web designer did wrong…
There’s two things that cause friction here: it makes you look bad, and it also makes the past designer look bad.
If someone is willing to speak about their “ex” web designer in such a way, then what makes you think they won’t do the same when they talk about you?
It’s a lot like dating, really. If you go on a first date with someone and they won’t stop talking about how horrible their past girlfriend or boyfriend was… you’re going to have a hard time connecting and creating a new relationship.
Now I’m not saying that things don’t go wrong between clients and vendors, but what I am saying is that if you forgive them before you enter into your next relationship, you stand to have it succeed!
And by the way, I’m not saying that things don’t ever go south when you hire contractors for your business, and you should be able to air those issues out freely.
The key distinction here, is that you don’t want to bring this kind of bad energy into a conversation with a new provider that you’re considering.
There’s immense power in forgiving, and I love the Hawaiian practice of Ho Oponopono: “I forgive you, I’m sorry, I love you, Thank you.”
When you do this exercise on your past vendors and partners, you’ll be able to enter into your next business relationship with a clean slate.
You won’t second-guess everything they say, and you’ll break the self-fulfilling prophecy that’s created when you keep re-hashing the past with your new web designer, copywriter, or virtual assistant.
Hiring For Small Business: Start With a Clean Slate
So go ahead, take a few minutes right now to make a list of the people that you need to forgive before you make another business hire.
Once you have your list, it’s time to close your eyes, visualize the person in front of you and say the 4 sentences from Ho Oponopono.
“I forgive you, I’m sorry, I love you, Thank you.”
This tip might seem too easy to be worth trying, but I’ve seen the miracles it can create when people forgive and start fresh. This simple exercise can work in any relationship too, not just business. It’s been a true keeper of peace in my family, and I really think it could change the way human beings interact on a global level.
But let’s start with our business relationships, shall we?
This tip is bound to save you hours of frustration when hiring for small business contractors or employees. Give it a shot! What have you got to lose?
