How to Hire a Team So You Can Fire Yourself

August 3rd, 2021

You know that being Chief Everything Officer in your short term rental business just isn’t possible, especially as you start to grow and scale. As much as you think you can, you can’t be everywhere at once, and you can’t wear all the hats.

What’s the solution? Learning how to hire a team!

A lot of newer business owners balk at hiring help because they think they don’t have the revenue for it. They’re afraid they won’t be able to sustain paying someone to do things that they are fully capable of doing themselves, like cleaning the units or communicating with potential guests.

If this is you, too, here’s what you’re missing: You can’t afford to NOT hire.

Learning how to hire a team member or three frees up your time to develop your business and be the visionary for what you want your business to become. It also allows you to let go of tasks and responsibilities that you don’t excel at. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you’re the best person for that job. Others can probably do it better and faster.

Before you hire, there’s a few things to remember:

Be Clear on Your Goals

What is the goal of adding to your team? Do you want to free up your time or uplevel some of your current work? Maybe you’re looking for more efficiency or you no longer want to do certain tasks.

Make a list of all the things you’d like a new hire to take care of for you, but don’t limit yourself to one area. For example, maybe you’d like the guest booking process to be more streamlined and you’re also struggling with keeping up with cleaning the units after a guest leaves. Even though these two tasks would probably fall under two different roles, still write them down.

As you’re brainstorming, you’ll start to see patterns emerge. And when you see those patterns, you can group like tasks together to form a potential job description.

Know the Roles You Need Covered First

Of course, there are some roles that we recommend outsourcing as soon as possible. The first two roles should be a bookkeeper and an executive assistant.

You may be good with numbers and you may be incredibly organized. But that doesn’t mean you’re the best person to do your own bookkeeping or scheduling.

Keeping your numbers straight and having someone else’s brain in your books is incredibly important. A bookkeeper can help you keep an eye on cashflow and expenses, identify ways to invest differently or increase profits. Not only that but they’ll also reconcile your books on a regular basis so you always know right where you stand.

An executive assistant is important because as you grow, you need someone who knows what’s going on behind the scenes. Someone other than you. An EA can help with calendar management and be the sounding board for other team members you might have.

You may be surprised by how important a bookkeeper and executive assistant are for your short term rental business. But there are other roles you might want to consider early on too:

  • Cleaning team

  • Operations manager

  • Handyman

  • Investors (Yes, investors are team members!)

Don’t “Hive Mind” Your Hire on Social

It’s tempting to want to ask your friends and family for recommendations for new hires or advice on how to hire a team member. Maybe your cousin cleans houses on the side or your nephew is in school to be an accountant. Or your best friend is really organized and could (so they say) be a great executive assistant.

It’s probably not a good idea to hire friends and family members, unless you don’t value them as friends and family members. Hear me out here.

There’s a reason why employers pay unemployment insurance. There’s a reason why there’s legislation around how minimum hourly wages. Business can get messy, especially if you’re newer in business. It takes time to learn how to manage a team, and that may not be something you want to “test out” with family and friends.

Post job descriptions on social media and tap into your network for who they might know. But when making hiring decisions, everyone needs to go through the same vetting process. Everyone. Even your mom, should you think she’d be a good fit for a role.

You may have started your business thinking that you’d run a few short term rentals on the side and make a little extra money. But if you’ve seen success and want to grow, it’s essential to learn how to hire a team so you can keep on growing--with your sanity intact.

Being a business owner allows you so much freedom and flexibility if you do it right. And doing it right means you don’t act as the Chief Everything Officer and become the visionary and true CEO instead.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a short term rental business but are unsure of what to do first (or next), grab the Short Term Rental Blueprint course for free. We’ll walk you through those first steps so you can be on your way to a successful business.

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