Hiring Employees for Your Design Business

If you’ve been running your design business for a while, the chances are that you’ve felt spread thin a time or two. There are just so many hats you have to wear as a solopreneur, right?

So, you might have considered hiring someone to help take a few things off your plate. But let’s be honest, hiring is scary - as a designer, it’s something that I (Abbey here! 👋) never thought that I would do. However, I’ve spent the past two years navigating the transition from running my business as a solopreneur, to delegating parts of my business to employees. And I have a lot of advice to share!

So, here’s the backstory on why I chose to hire employees for my brand design business, and the lessons I learned along the way.

Why I hired

*Eye roll* There was once a time where I cringed at the idea of managing employees or a team. In school, I HATED group projects because I just wanted to have full control over the design. I didn’t like having to delegate!

As my business grew, I became more and more aware of the fact that I’d simply have to learn to love the idea of hiring employees for Wayfarer if I wanted to continue to book those dream clients of mine. After about four years in my business, I’d hit a limit with how much work I could take on by myself. I was spread thin. I’d also noticed that there were some tasks in my business that I really didn’t like doing - so, hiring? Suddenly, it sounded a lot more appealing.

Here’s a quick snapshot of my hiring timeline:

Jan 2020 - hired a jr designer (contractor / project by project role)
Feb 2021 - hired a project manager (contractor role)
Dec 2021 - hired a new jr designer (part-time employee)
Jan 2022 - my project manager quit (on good terms though!)
March 2022 - hired operations coordinator (part-time employee)

Lesson 1 – The hiring process can’t be rushed

When I hired a junior designer as a contractor, I figured it would be simple and seamless to handle things on my own. I posted about the opening on IG, and ended up having over 100 applications, which was cool, but also a bit of a nightmare.

It was SO much work trying to review all of those applications while also narrowing things down to who I thought would be the best fit. Looking back, I know now that I jumped to the assumption that I needed a junior designer, because that’s what everyone else was doing. But after a few projects, I came to the conclusion that adding a junior designer to my team wasn’t freeing up time in my business.

After making that first hire, I was still spending a ton of hours working… but on admin stuff like proposals, contracts, email follow ups, and figuring out timelines. I didn’t enjoy that work, and it was then that I realized that I actually needed to hire team members to help me complete those tasks!

When I hired the second time, I worked with a Hiring Consultant who helped to ensure I was really hiring for the right role that would make the biggest impact for my business. (Shout out to you, Meg K Co!)

I learned that in order to decide on the most impactful hire for my business, I needed to ask myself a few questions, like:

What’s currently taking up the most time in your business?
What do you NOT enjoy doing in your business?
What type of personality would best be able to handle those tasks?
How do you envision this person growing with your business? How can you make sure that their own career goals align with that?
How much control will you need to have over how they spend their time during the workday? Can it be more flexible or will you need them to be more available to do things quickly? (this is important for deciding whether you need an employee vs a contractor)

I also learned that it’s absolutely okay to eaaase into the hiring process. Paid test projects are a great way to see how people work, and if they really align with what you need before committing to them. I recommend giving candidates you’ve identified as potential good fits for your business 1-2 small tasks that would only take about an hour to do (and pay them, of course!). It also helps to have a call to allow them to ask questions before completing the tasks.

While it’s important to not feel rushed through the hiring process, it’s equally important to not take it too lightly. Investing the time and energy into finding the right person is CRUCIAL if you want them to become a permanent part of your business and truly grow with you! If you think about it, this person could very well become your next business bestie/work spouse/professional therapist (kidding, but not really). It’s important that you choose the right one!

Lesson 2: Map out EVERY part of your process

It’s easy to assume that the hardest part about hiring is the actual hiring process. In reality, the most difficult part of hiring is onboarding your new team member and training them on your process! It’s a lot of work that I personally didn’t consider until I had to do it… multiple times 🙈

Writing out your SOPs* (standard operating procedures) can be a great way to provide a step-by-step outline of how you complete every important task in your business. Once your SOPs are documented, you’ll be able to share them with your new team member(s), so that they can learn how to do things on their own and also have something to refer back to. Trust me on this one: automating and optimizing every portion that you possibly can of your hiring and onboarding process will be your saving grace!

*DISCLAIMER: documenting your SOPs will take a long time. I started diligently documenting mine at the beginning of 2022, and I’m still working on it. (Send help) However, doing the work to document your SOPs right now will save you a ton of time when you choose to hire future team members!

I’d recommend setting up your SOPs as a Google Doc in a shared drive folder so that your team members always have access to them! Loom videos are another great way to show your new hire how to complete more complicated tasks.

I believe that another massively important portion of the onboarding process is building a genuine relationship and connection with your new hire - so, even with those beautiful SOPs, dedicate the time in your new team member’s first few days to walk through main responsibilities together on a Zoom call. Give them plenty of opportunities to ask questions, and maybe even treat them to a Doordashed lunch!

Lesson 3: Delegating is a muscle that you’ll need to strengthen

…and it’s quite the workout. 😂

As I mentioned before, I struggle with delegation. When I hired my first employees, it was a challenge to learn to let go of certain tasks. But once I did, it felt SO good to get those things off my plate!

If you’re struggling to figure out what to delegate first, take some time to analyze which tasks in your business don’t require you to be involved in order to run smoothly. Tasks like content scheduling, blog importing or scheduling initial calls with prospective clients all take a significant amount of time, but with the right automation and training, they’re things that you might easily be able to hand off to your new employee(s)!

And while it might be obvious to you, it isn’t going to be obvious to your new employee that it’s okay (and normal) to make mistakes. Make it a point to message that - they’re bound to be nervous in their first couple of weeks! I actually made it a point to have the fact that mistakes are normal and okay written out in a lot of Wayfarer’s SOPs!

My goal in hiring is for that new team member to take things off of my plate, while also owning that responsibility within the business. So, I would rather have that person try to figure things out on their own (most of the time), and mess up, than feel like they need to come to me with questions or to request permission. However, you’ll know best what kind of work and support style you prefer - if you’re more comfortable easing into things and having your team member come to you for permission and clarity often in their first few months, make that known in your SOPs! But, if you’d like to start things off by delegating right away, make sure to encourage them to take ownership of their process without fearing potential mistakes. Doing so will empower them to make decisions of their own, and potentially even find better ways to do things!

Lesson 4: Prepare for paperwork

Just assume that if you want to hire employees, you can expect a ton of paperwork and payroll-associated documentation to iron out! I chose to work with an HR consultant who helped me with this portion of the hiring process (thanks, Paradigm!). Your accountant can also be a huge help!

And please, make sure you invest in a great payroll system. At first, I tried to use Quickbooks, but it wasn’t user friendly. I’ve since moved over to Gusto, and I recommend it!

Now, it might feel really awkward at first, but if you have questions about payroll or unemployment tax information, just ask your HR consultant or accountant for help over the phone. It’s the best way to get clarity quickly, so you don’t hold up your own process.

And now for some final thoughts

By far, hiring is the hardest thing I’ve done as a business owner. But even with all of the challenges, I’m so happy that I did! I always assumed that I wouldn’t like managing or even being part of a team, but I love having the ability to bounce ideas off of my team members, while seeking consistent support. It’s also a bit of a dream to know that each member of our team is genuinely excited to see Wayfarer grow!

If you’re feeling like it’s the right time to hire, I hope this advice was helpful for you! But if you’d rather stay solo, that’s okay, too. You can still outsource things without needing to have a “team.” Take the time to find out what kind of business (and life) you’d like to build ❤️

Looking for more advice for your ever-evolving design business? Check out our Wayfarer Resource Library!