How to Hire and Build a Team for Your Online Business

I could picture it so clearly…

☕️ An area for the tea I’m going to grow over here.

🎙 A second structure where I can work & record my podcast ‘On Your Terms’ over there.

🌳 The maple trees I’d tap and start the maple syrup company for.

🐄 The highland cattle (look ’em up 😳) roaming our lush, green property overlooking a river and the Green Mountains.

I spent all of last week in Vermont on a trip that fall dreams are made of, letting myself dream about what I’d do if I purchased a huge a$$ piece of land there.

As I grew my business over the past 6 years, I started to dream up what felt like HUGE dreams at the time that had nothing to do with revenue* per se.

My big 3 were / are:

1. To regularly donate business proceeds to 3 areas that mean a lot to me, the Leukemia Society for my dad, food insecurity, environmental orgs (As of 2021: ✅ )
2. To create a $10,000 per year scholarship to my undergrad institution, who regularly supports first-gen college goers (As of 2021: close, but haven’t hit the regular $10k yet!)
3. Hire employees (As of 2022: ✅. We’re now at 2 full-time employees & 4 contractors)

*(it takes revenue to hit all of these goals. I’m just saying that I stopped making “I want to make $10,000 in revenue per month” goals a long time ago.)

Maybe your goals look way different than mine! Ain’t no shame in the fancy handbag (or pock-A-book, as we Philly people say) or G-Wagon game, but for me — #3 above was HUGE.

Being able to hire an employee (let alone 2!) was such a huge dream for me. Not because it sounded cool or because it was some box I wanted to check off — but because I knew it’d feel so supportive and fun in my business.

**I wanted teammates — people who are “in it” with me everyday. And why’s that important?

Because I love the safety in feeling supported. I loved the idea of supporting someone else’s creativity and giving them a safe place to develop it. I knew I’d be a better, more strategic, entrepreneur if I surrounded myself with really smart, passionate people (✅).

This week, I’m having a serious pinch me moment.

Tomorrow I’m heading out with my employees (!!), Lindsey (in person) & Rachael (virtual), for a retreat in the Hudson Valley, NY: equal parts relaxation and 2023 business planning.

We got the most incredible space (private cabins!!), set off in the mountains looking out at over 200+ acres of beauty to plan out an epic year of legal support for your business.

I can’t wait to share behind the scenes with you over on Instagram and here next week — but in the meantime, I want us to learn about how to legally hire (employees OR contractors!).

I’ve learned SO much about hiring and building a team this year. And I’ve learned that our industry is…. well, not great at it. That’s why I broke down the difference between contractors & employees and how to hire your first contractor (legally) for you (listen to this episode first, then this week’s!).

And now, I’m bringing on my own HR Team (Paradigm HR!) on the pod this week to share all things hiring, leadership & team building 🙌

🎙 Listen to Episode 66 “Hiring, Leadership & Team Building with Kira La Forgia of Paradigm HR” of On Your Terms here!👇

What are your “non-revenue” goals? They don’t have to look like mine. Mine aren’t “right” — they’re just mine. Comment below and let me know what 1 goal of yours is! 🙂

PS. There’s so much to learn when it comes to building a team, hiring, and becoming a leader in your own business. I chatted with HR expert (and my own HR company!) Kira of Paradigm HR to learn Listen on my website, Spotify, or Apple now.

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**My mindset coach, Jen Diaz, says “having a clear understanding of our WHY allows us to make sure our goals will actually fulfill us, and add value to our lives and the world around us. When we’re able to understand the deeper meaning of why we want what we want, we’ll be more in touch with what moves us and will find ourselves far more intrinsically motivated.” – Jen Diaz

Jen encourages you to go beyond the surface of your goals and ask yourself the tough(er) questions:

• Why do I really want to accomplish this?
• How do I believe that will add to my life?
• What will it mean to me if I accomplish it?
• What kind of positive impact will this have on the world around me?
• When I’m at the end of my life, is this something I’ll be proud to look back on?

Thanks for these incredible prompts, Jen! xo