Hiring for a Startup? 3 Tips for Hiring Your First Employee

Entrepreneurship is exciting, daunting and your number one passion. Having the right employees will make all the difference in your success or failure. Here are three important tips to help you hire your first employee.

Ask for Advice Ask a trusted business associate or mentor how they go about hiring an employee. Ask specific questions about their current hiring process and what the beginning to end looks like. Make sure you seek the advice of someone who retains great employees. Getting some inside secrets from people who clearly know what they are doing can go a long way to helping you find the right people.

Be Engaged in Social Social media can tell you a lot about a person. Take some time to look up each candidate and view their various social media profiles. Even private profiles have a public photo which can give you some good insight on what their personality is like. A lot of people are very open on LinkedIn and Twitter. This will give you an idea of what they are passionate about and what they focus their time on.

Trust Your Instincts If your gut is telling you that someone isn't right for the job, trust it. Turning a candidate down is better for all involved than having to fire her later. Also, hiring a candidate about whom you feel good that may have a less than stellar background could be just the thing for your new venture. Hiring employees gets easier as you practice but following these three steps can help you weed out bad hires.