Ready to Grow Your Buzzing Business?

Ron Greidanus’ bare hands are wrist-deep in a beehive as he chats calmly about the challenges of running a honeybee farm. One of the key issues? It’s not the bee stings — though he gets plenty of these — it’s keeping up with his growing operation.

“The hardest part of owning a small business is going from the point where you do everything to the point where you hire staff and you oversee things,” he says.

The former mechanical engineer-turned-bee keeper started his honeybee farm in Stettler in 1998. He’s continued to develop his venture since. Today, he has hives on 120 locations (64 on each) which produce between 500-600,000 pounds of honey per year. A few years ago, Ron got to the point when he knew his operation was more than he could handle alone, but he struggled with deciding on the right time to hire staff.

As a small business owner/operator, Ron is definitely not alone in agonizing over when it’s best to add staff. In fact, small business owners report that deciding when to hire is one of their biggest worries. The debate goes something like this: If you hire too early, you'll likely bring on cash-flow problems, a worker who has nothing to do and the added stress of management. But if you hire too late, you could miss the window to grow your business and be overwhelmed with work that you can’t accomplish.

So how can a small business owner know when the time is right? Unfortunately, there’s no cookie cutter answer for that question, but small business expert Neil Patel from Entrepreneur.com says businesses should consider the following when determining whether it’s time to hire.

Hire when you have a clear sense of what the employee’s responsibilities will be.

If you’re just overwhelmed and you don’t have a clear set of responsibilities and expectations for your new hire, don’t hire anyone. Bringing on staff at this stage will be counterproductive.

Hire when you know that an employee can earn money for your business.

If your employee’s efforts can improve productivity and increase revenue, they’ll be paying their own salary and helping you build your business. That can mean marketing and sales support, production or customer service.

Hire when you know who you’re looking for.

It’s nice to think about hiring an employee who can jump into any part of the business the way you do as an owner, but it’s unrealistic and unlikely to expect that from an employee. The more clarity you have about the skill set you need, the better your chances of finding the right person for the job.

Don’t hire an employee when what you need is a contractor.

If your business is seasonal or your needs will change in the near future, tap into the gig economy. Instead of hiring a full-time employee, hire a contractor who meets parameters you’re looking for in an employee. If both parties know what the terms are before the work begins, contract employment can be advantageous for both employee and employer.

That win-win scenario is an experience that Ron has enjoyed on his honeybee farms. In recent years, he began hiring seasonal agricultural workers. He provides clear terms, steady, seasonal employment and housing, renovated with financial backing from Vision Credit Union, and he receives qualified labour when he needs it, which helps keep his hive operation buzzing.

“I didn’t want to hire someone for the summer and have to lay them off again at the end of the season, so I was reluctant to hire,” Ron says. “Having (the staff) there when the work is there is helping me to make the most of the season.”