Next week, I am set on finding someone to add on to my staff. The simple day to day stuff has become to overwhelming while trying to make the consulting business grow. I wanted to share some things I will be looking for when I hire and if you know anyone please send them my way.

Flexibility - You must be able to be flexible within not only the hours of this crazy business but you most also be flexible in your ideas. Not every person you run into in this business is going to share the same ideas.

Diversified - While I do want someone who is very strong at their position they are hired for, I want someone who can also do other jobs as well. For example, I might need you as a receptionist and a office expert; however, I also need you to be able to do sales as well. Not door to door, not hard selling, but light sales.

Dedicated - This in my book is the hardest for an employee. I have seen few if any employees who were as dedicated to my businesses as what I am. I understand the concept too. When my business does well, I benefit from it. That is why I like to include profit sharing.

Motivated - You must motivate yourself to succeed. While I can push you at times along the way, I need you to be able to be self motivated.

Independent - I use to be a micro manager because I didn't trust the people around me. But now as I have grown my own skills an employee being independent is a must. I shouldn't have to tell you 6 times to do it, sometimes with routine stuff I shouldn't have to tell you once.

Let me know your thoughts on qualities you like your employees to have.

I think theses 5 skils are top of the line thoughts. Im currently looking for a job what are you going to be hiring?

The Dedicated is a hard one ot fill, as is Motivated. People are rarely motivated if all they're getting is a check. We moved into proffit sharing a while back and it's been a big benefit. We also have our own internal competitions of who is outselling who and getting a bonus along with a company wide bonus for any month that we break the previous months income, and the bonus doubles each month we continue to break the previous month. This has been a pretty big incentive for our staff to continue to drive traffic and sales.

Independent is a MAJOR PLUS. Having staff that think on their feet and implement solutions is a bonus. If any of our staff come to us and ask to run a special promotion, we usually authorize it and let loose on the reigns to see how they do. It's become almost a competition between staff to see who can outdo the other, who gets the kudos from the clients, and who gets the bonuses at the end of the month. No more feet dragging (except by me )

Can't imagine you dragging your feet, Conor. Profit sharing and bonuses do help. Anytime extra money is involved, employees get motivated. I know it motivates me!

I want honesty too. Conor, how would you like to come work for me?

I think I have told this story before here and this is why I am hating hiring someone on board. We hired a sales rep for our web design business in Grand Rapids. The guy was remote. He would always show up to in office meeting and go to chamber meetings, etc. Never any problem with that. However, there were no deals getting done and we couldn't figure it out. We had handed him almost $50k in closed leads. All he had to do was sign the docs and smile.

He didn't do anything with them. He let them died off and then when he was terminated, we looked in his mailbox. In the month he was with us, he had sent 13 e-mails all to my partner and I. It was horrible and then he had a hard time figuring out why he didn't get a last paycheck after stealing time and supplies from us.

I want to find a part-time sales rep / multi task this time that can grow with us. I like the idea of profit sharing, bonuses, etc. I also know its difficult to find motivated and motivated people. Especially in retail sales. I use to do hiring for a retail store.

I know hiring can be a pain, but at least you are growing enough to need to hire on someone new! I think that flexibility also needs to include flexibility with others. It doesn't matter how dedicated, honest, etc. someone is if they can't work well with the rest of the team!

Team players are very important for sure. I like having individuals who can work on projects on their own and really take ownership in their work.

Hiring the right individual is difficult. Especially in todays economy when there are a lot of people who are good actors fighting for jobs.

I'm all for getting into a new field, but I'm so focused on the small light at the end of the tunnel I"m afraid to get into any other ventures (at least at the moment). I have an estore that is supposed to launch here next month and I'm heading up much of the SEO stuff on that along with keeping products and the site updated. Just one more thing to have my hands into, but this was also as a trial experiment on some of the SEO stuff I've been doing. Trying to see just how fast I can rank out for certain keywords without spending a fortune on adwords etc.

Never a dull moment here. But fingers crossed for you finding the right mix of people - it's always a challenge, but one that's worth the fight if you come accross that gem!