01 Sep When is it the right time to hire and expand?

It’s one of the hardest questions to answer as the owner of a small or medium sized business – when is it the right time to hire new people and expand your team?

It’s a crucial decision to make; hire too quickly and it could put your financials at risk, but take too long to get support and your clients or customers could suffer, not to mention the workload of existing employees.

Though it’s extremely hard to give an exact time for when you should be hiring – as it’s completely different for every business – one of the key things to consider is your capacity.

When you find yourself struggling to reach expectations of your customers, you have far more demand than supply and you don’t have any capacity at all for new work, it’s time to start recruiting! The trouble is, you need to determine whether you really do have the demand and opportunities to warrant a new hire, or whether you’re getting seriously busy but don’t actually have enough work to keep another person in action. Understanding the difference between these is really important to make sure you’re not hiring too fast.

Also, aside from the obvious consideration of whether you’re generating enough cash to cover your new team member’s monthly salary, there are also a lot of non-tangible things to think about when you take on someone new. What room for progression is there in the business for them? Who will be their manager? Does your team have the capacity to manage, lead them and develop their performance, or would it be wiser to outsource to an external party to relieve the strain?

Once you start thinking about hiring, you may find that there just isn’t enough space in your current office! If you’re business is doing so well that you’re looking to recruit several people and really drive expansion, then your workspace need to reflect this too. At Spectrum, we’re more than happy to work with you to understand your growth plans and provide a workspace solution for you, but the additional cost of basics like rent, as well as salary, should be factored in when analysing how a new team member will affect your financials.

We also have business growth experts on hand at Spectrum Business Park to help you with making these kinds of decisions; EDBS (East Durham Business Service) is the Enterprise Agency for East Durham, and provide business support and advice to new and established businesses on a range of topics to help them start up, develop and grow. From business planning, to marketing, apprenticeships, business growth or funding opportunities, EDBS at Spectrum 7 can provide expertise and support.

If you are growing, recruiting and looking to expand, contact us today to find out more about the serviced and corporate office space at Spectrum Business Park – just call 07946 439 970 or email info@spectrumbusinesspark.co.uk.