Business, From the Experts, Your Event Career
Taking Your Business to the Next Level: Hiring Employees or Assistants
Are you considering hiring on employees or assistants to help with your event planning business? You may have some questions about doing this, like how to tell when you’re ready, what qualities to look for, and how to delegate tasks. QC Event School tutor, Athena DeVonne, is here to address those concerns!
“How do I know when I’m ready?”
It’s actually quite simple to tell if you’re ready to bring on employees or assistants! If you start to feel like your customer service is starting to slip or you have an increasing number of business inquiries and opportunities that you’re not sure you can keep up with, it’s time to think about hiring an employee.
You never want to jeopardize the quality of your service, so consider hiring an employee or an assistant to help maintain your high level of consistency. Which brings us to the next point…
“What qualities should I look for?”
In order to find someone who can keep up with your impeccable service, Athena advises to look for 4 qualities.
You need someone who…
- Is able to communicate: Your employee or assistant needs to be able to communicate in the same way and at the same level that you do with your clients.
- Is teachable: They need to be willing to learn your ways!
- Is reliable: There’s no way to know if someone truly is reliable before hiring them on, so consider setting up a probation period or an internship.
- Is consistent: Consider a 90-day probation period to really see what your employee or assistant is like. As Athena says, it takes 30 days to build a habit, 60 days to make it consistent, and 90 days to make it second nature!
“How do I figure out their responsibilities?”
Now that you know you’re going to hire an employee or assistant for your business and you know what qualities to look for, how are you going to delegate tasks?
Athena’s advice is to journal yourself for 30 days to determine what you really need help with and what responsibilities and tasks you’re willing to let go of. For this 30-day journal, you want to write down absolutely everything you do for 30 whole days.
It’s important not to get caught up by Googling “event planner duties” because you’ll get overwhelmed. Google can’t tell you what you specifically need help with or how you run your business. A 30-day journal is a sure-fire way to discover what you need your employees or assistants to do, and when.
