If you are desperately overloaded with work and now looking around to see if you should take someone on board then some would say it is too late. Personally, I am not sure if I agree – we are not perfect and if by now we have begun making money then that is what we focus on, of course – but it can’t be to the detriment of all else – and I agree with that.

It is important however to keep our cost base as low as possible – your cost base (or direct expenses) is what it costs you on a monthly basis to run your business – imagine you had no sales whatsoever, what would you still need to pay out to keep the business going that month? Rent, salaries, electricity, business rates, insurance and so on… This is your cost base – if you keep this tight then that leaves less chance of failure when things are slow and more profit when things are good.

But when we start getting too busy we tend to start looking around for help – consider outsourcing to freelancers – this can be an excellent way of getting work done whilst keeping your cost base low – unfortunately freelancers are sometimes difficult to manage, unreliable and can steal your clients.

Part-timers – what about someone at home with children at school – years of experience but nothing to do – advertising by word of mouth for such people can unearth true gems.

Full timers – if freelancers/part-timers don’t work for you then you need a full time employee. Yes, they will work for you full time and will be able to manage alot of the workload for you so that you can start working on the business a bit more and not in the business – if that is what you want.

Don’t forget however, holiday pay, national insurance contributions, PAYE deductions, health and safety requirements, pensions, additional office furniture, more telephones, computers, software licenses and so on.

I am currently putting an eGuide together that explains all of the different things you will need to think of before employing someone, a check list kind of thing. If you would like a copy then let us know.