"During our first year we grew quickly, and it became pretty clear we needed to take the plunge and hire because there weren't enough hours in the day for Liam and I to run the business day to day and keep our heads above water with that growth," Hewitt says.
But when you've been doing everything in the business, how do you figure out who you need to hire and what tasks they'll take on?
"If you're doing everything from generating orders to fixing the machinery you've got to ask 'what am I good at and what is mission critical for me to continue doing in this business?'," says Warren. "That will show the gaps where you need new people coming into the business to take on those roles."
There's a balance to be struck here, she says. While there might be a thousand different tasks to be done, an employee needs to have a clear job description, but that also can't be too rigid, because flexibility is often a requirement of members of a small team.
Many of the small business owners interviewed this week had experience of hiring from previous roles, before they took on staff for the first time in their own firms.
That was the case for Louise O'Sullivan, owner of dog daycare business DogHQ, but she still says she's learnt a lot about hiring during the four years she's been doing it in her own operation.
O'Sullivan says she's learnt a good attitude and fit with the rest of the team are just as important as a candidate's practical skills and experience. CVs give her background information, but selecting the right candidate all comes down to the interview process - which also involves being 'interviewed' by the dogs themselves.
"I would say by 10 minutes into an interview I 'know' if a candidate's the right fit for the team and business, so the next step is to see if they can actually walk the talk with the dogs," she says. "We wouldn't employ anyone that doesn't have the appropriate instinctive responses to the dogs and this is something you can't pretend."
Megan Clark - founder of 10-year-old business Copper Brand Experiences, which has a team of 10 - also emphasises finding candidates with the right cultural fit is key.
About three years ago Clark was introduced to a behavioural management and performance improvement system that the company now uses fully for staff management, starting from recruitment and continuing right through a person's employment with the firm.
"So, for example, we have a really rigorous interview process - it's three interviews, and they're all very in depth," explains Clark, "but what we find is we really unearth people's values and where their behaviours sit. So when they come into the company they're completely aligned with the company's values and culture."
That helps new team members settle in quickly, she says, as does a structured induction process during which they get to spend time in all parts of the business.
"It's also an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other a bit better as well, which is great when you're a small team."
Hiring right - Lorraine Warren, Massey University
Lorraine Warren is a Professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Massey University.
How do you know if your business is ready to take on staff for the first time?
Sometimes there are very obvious things going on in your business - like you've got a big order coming in - that makes it clear you've got to get people in to take on that work. But sometimes there isn't that kind of step change going on; it's more of an incremental process when you find yourself doing more, working longer hours and fighting fires all the time. At that point you have to start thinking about who am I going to take on and what is it they need to do.
You also have to make sure your business is ready for that and you've got all the human resource and legal information under your belt so you know what you're doing.
What are some of the key considerations when trying to find the right person, especially when you've been doing everything yourself in the business?
First of all you've got to look at where you are in the business and what you want to do in the short to medium term. If you're doing everything from generating orders to fixing the machinery you've got to ask 'what am I good at and what is mission critical for me to continue doing in this business?'. That will show the gaps where you need new people coming into the business to take on those roles.
Obviously you can't give people a set of tasks and a to-do list that's a real mish-mash; you've got to have a very clear mission and job description for what you're expecting the new person to do. That can't be too rigid in a small business because people have to be flexible in that kind of environment, but you do need to be clear on what they're going to do overall.
The next thing to think about is cultural fit. Obviously having the right expertise is important in a candidate and there may be essential skills or qualifications you need them to have, but cultural fit is so important. You can often give people the new knowledge they need to do a job quite quickly but if they're not a cultural fit with your organisation it's going to be an issue you might not be able to resolve, leading to mutual unhappiness all round.
What key things do you need to find out from candidates during the selection process?
You can only start to answer those questions if you've done the planning I talked about earlier. Who is it you want, what do you want them to do and what does a cultural fit look like? When the person comes in you'll need to ask questions about what they see in their future - short, medium and long term.
Find out what's important to them and what motivates them. We're all motivated to some extent by financial concerns, but some people are more motivated by having flexibility or creative expression or working from home. Those kinds of things can significantly affect day to day how a person carries out their job so there needs to be clear discussion about the rewards of the job and how that fits with their thinking about their future.
Another criticism that's often levelled at small business employment is there's not adequate training, or room for development or promotion. Typically people need a desirable career trajectory, so what does that look like and how does that fit with what the firm has to offer? What promises can you realistically make, going beyond the immediate and looking at how the person is going to grow as the organisation grows and develops?
Once a new employee has started, how do you help them fit into your operation?
It's important to remember that however cool a person appears in their interview or how good they are in terms of their qualifications or experience they haven't worked in your organisation before. I've seen instances in small businesses where they've sometimes taken on very smart people who have had fantastic potential, but the employer has expected them to get going too quickly and not understood it takes time to bring out those skills in people.
You have to make time, however difficult that is, to enable the person to find out about the business - right through from when are the coffee breaks to how to find the essential knowledge they'll need to do the job. Also make clear what you expect them to achieve, and that's a process of negotiation, to bring out the right skills in new people, particularly if the firm is going in the right direction.
When we're busy and firefighting situations we also often give negative feedback, and it can be easy to forget that the person you've just employed is only hearing negative things, so it's important to give positive feedback as well.
Coming up in Your Business: What is the experience like for immigrant entrepreneurs who have set up businesses in New Zealand? If you've got a story to share about the highs and lows of being an immigrant entrepreneur, then drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com
