Working alone can be peaceful. You don’t have to worry about anyone else, and you can expect the expected, but doing everything yourself can only take your business so far. If you’ve got big publishing dreams, you need a dream team to help achieve them. This week’s newsletter is about preparing yourself to hire the right people, how to find a website-building wizard, and knowing who can take the wheel when your writing takes a backseat. Let’s go!
In this week’s issue 📨
- Find the perfect employees
- Welcome your own web developer
- Getting a ghostwriter
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Prepare to hire
You’re publishing quality content and seeing consistent audience growth, but more projects are coming down the pipeline and you’ve already got a full plate. Before you drown under the tsunami of your own success, it might be time to send out an SOS and make your first team hire. There’s no shame in asking for help, and plenty of talented people are ready to lend a hand.
To ensure you’re employing the best, let’s review some questions you should ask yourself before lighting your signal.
“What do I need help with?”
- Which tasks do you enjoy doing yourself, and which do you wish you didn’t have to do? It’s important to be honest with yourself about what brings you joy in your business and what causes you heartache. This will allow you to be transparent with your team about what their jobs will be.
- Separating your publishing business into different categories can help compartmentalize tasks. Most of your work will fall into administrative, creative, marketing, technical, and customer service categories. Focus on the ones you’re most stressed about and go from there.
- You can make it easier on yourself by dividing your tasks into two categories: high priority (audience and revenue growth) or low priority (additional site customizations). This will help you decide where to spend most of your time as editor-in-chief.
“Do I need a person or a tool?”
- Once you’ve discovered what needs doing, it’s time to figure out who or what is best for the job. You may not need to recruit a social media manager if you’re using tools like Zapier or MeetEdgar. Not every human can be replaced with a robot, but you should do what’s best for your business.
- Opting to use a tool or an integration may be the more cost-effective option when problem-solving. For example, support chatbots can help strengthen your customer service, templates in Canva and Figma can speed up your creative process, and sites like Wave and Xero make bookkeeping a breeze.
- If you decide to go with a more human touch, thoroughly define the role you need to fill before hiring anyone. Team members are unique and offer a wide range of skills, while a job position has clear tasks that need to be accomplished. This will ensure that you don’t overwork awesome people.
“How much will my hires work?”
- When bringing on great people, you’ll need to set expectations on the hours they’ll need to work to get the job done. Will they be a full-time employee, a part-time contractor, or an as-needed freelancer? If you’re not so sure, start by hiring project-based help to test the waters.
- Part-time employees and freelancers are a great choice when you want to offload a set of tasks related to one of your defined categories. If you’d like to beef up your billing, enlist a part-time administrative assistant. Need help making a marketing video? Reach out to a freelance video editor.
- Full-time employees and contractors are crucial when assigning ownership over a specific category. These hires are perfect when your business is growth-oriented, and you want to put as much energy as possible toward the highest priority activities.
“When should I start hiring?”
- Consider your budget. What money do you have right now, and what funds will you have later? This also ties to whether or not a human or a piece of software is essential for the job based on what you can afford. There’s no shame in holding off on hiring until your bank is more bountiful.
- If you still feel a bit disorganized, ensure you have your ducks in a row before taking on people management responsibilities. Additional employees can save time, but being a manager is a job all on its own. Wait to hire until you have the bandwidth to give your team the attention they deserve.
- If you’re already experiencing burnout, this usually means you need to regroup before you bring someone else into the fold. It’s important to calm any chaos now so that new employees are onboarded in the best way possible. Take a step back and examine what is and isn’t working.
Interesting stories & ideas 📚
- The first year of Threads – Platformer
- A social media future for journalism – One Man & His Blog
- Time to diversify your revenue streams – Media Makers Meet
- Why male voices dominate the news – Press Gazette
- A fraud fighters case study – Animalz
Website insight
Most everyone knows what a website is, but not everyone knows how they’re made. Many publishing platforms allow you to customize the look and feel of your site with various design settings and themes, but what if you want to go a step further and truly build a site from scratch? If you don’t have the know-how, hiring a talented web developer could be the solution you’re looking for.
Stan Burenko, business developer manager at Uptech, explains how to hire the most suitable web developer for the job.
#1 Outline your needs before jumping into the hiring process. Why do you need to hire a developer, what are your expectations, and what is the scope of work? Don’t rush when it comes to recognizing your requirements.
#2 Select a cooperation model so you know what expectations to set. Freelance developers are best for flexible, short-term, and specialized tasks, and they’re usually the most cost-effective solution.
#3 Determine the skills needed to get the job done. Front-end developers work on what your users see, back-end developers tune up your infrastructure, and full-stack developers provide the full package.
#4 Establish what’s essential regarding the critical criteria you’re looking for. If you have a tight budget, are multiple low-level devs better than one senior developer? Rank your essentials so that you stay within your means.
#5 Choose a hiring platform to begin your search. If you need to enlist a freelance developer, check out sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or Toptal. If you need a permanent in-house dev, try LinkedIn or consider a recruiting agency.
#6 Ask for recommendations on social media or within your social circle for a built-in trust factor with new hires. Plenty of people are excited to recommend their favorite developer who has solved all of their website woes.
#7 Review portfolios and read through any testimonials to get the inside scoop on the developers you’re considering. A good dev will be happy to provide proof that they’re the best for the job.
#8 Connect with their values, goals, and inspirations to ensure you get along well. Bringing a new developer onto your team isn’t all about the technical work; it’s also about the chemistry in your working relationship.
Ghost with the most
As your publication grows, you may find yourself writing less and less. Maybe you’ve gotten tied down to the technical responsibilities that come with running a successful business, or you’ve simply lost the passion to publish everything yourself. Whatever your reasons, bringing someone onto the team to carry the writing weight can be a powerful move.
Meghan McKenzie, author at Crowd Content, breaks down why hiring a ghostwriter is an effective way to keep your voice heard.
‣ If you’ve always had trouble putting words on paper, a ghostwriter can help decipher your thoughts. You can partner with them to decrypt jumbled notes, review confusing outlines, or set up a helpful in-person interview so that they can get to know you and your niche on an expert level.
‣ When your content volume is down because your other business needs are up, a ghostwriter can fill in the gaps to keep your publishing schedule flowing. Keeping up with demand is tough if you don’t have a large team, so relieving yourself of writing responsibilities can provide you more freedom.
‣ As you’re looking to take your publication to the next level, a ghostwriter can assist with transitioning from a singular name to a big brand. Not every piece of writing needs your name on it. All you need to do is review the content and provide your stamp of approval using your brand name.
‣ If your publication has evolved to include multiple niches, you may no longer be the maestro of everything your business offers. In this case, your ghostwriter can be the expert you rely on to come up with clever content ideas. Just be sure that whatever they create aligns with your brand’s voice.
‣ Remember that a ghostwriter isn’t always a good idea. If your content is highly personal, your followers may not like that you’ve hired someone else to deliver your message. Whatever hiring decisions you make, you should always strive to be authentic and transparent so as not to break subscriber trust.
Curator’s pick ✍️
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