Most successful businesses don’t start out with an army of employees right off the bat. Even modern success stories, such as Apple or Facebook, started off with no more than a handful of employees. With just one or two people and sheer ingenuity, many small businesses expand and grow beyond their wildest dreams.

Of course, there comes a time when upstart business owners must answer the question: when is it time to start expanding? What are the signs that it’s time to hire? How do you know whether it’s better to hire more people or just outsource?

The signs that it’s time to hire

Having the right employees can boost the productivity of a business, improve the quality of work, and just improve the organization overall. In short, having the right people around can make or break a business. 

So when do you know it’s time to start adding people to the team? After all, hiring can be expensive—making a mistake in recruitment is a luxury many small businesses can’t afford.We need to ensure we take of ourselves. It is not selfish to put ourselves first sometimes.

The first and most obvious sign it’s time to start hiring is if employees now seem tired and overworked. Do your people struggle with tasks they once found a breeze? Do you observe them becoming slightly more irritable? These are the telltale signs of burnout, and a sure signal that they need extra hands around.

Additionally, there might be instances where your pre-existing workforce doesn’t have the skills that your steadily growing business needs. While it’s possible to upskill, sometimes you’ll have no choice but to look out for extra help.

There will also come a certain point wherein not hiring may ultimately do your business more harm than good. If your business starts missing out on certain opportunities, for example, saving money by not hiring is actually costing you. Finally, holding on to tired employees will inevitably result in a decline in the quality of work that will turn potential customers/clients away.

Hiring vs. outsourcing

Hiring and outsourcing are two popular ways to get extra help for your business.

One advantage of hiring in-house employees is that it’ll be easier for them to collaborate and communicate closely with your business’ employees, making them better suited for long-term projects requiring a lot of input. In-house employees also tend to be closer to the company culture than outsourced workers. The cons of hiring in-house employees however is that they’re usually more expensive.

Outsourced employees are cheaper, allow businesses access to a wider range of expertise, and can easily be adjusted to suit the needs of a business. Outsourced employees, however, are less likely to stick around and are ill-suited to handling business-critical functions because of their high turnover.

Getting help

Deciding between hiring and outsourcing is tough but the good news is that there are firms willing to help. HR firm Q2’s People4People service, for instance, deploys experts to help your business determine whether outsourcing or hiring is the best way to go.

Furthermore, People4People also offers services such as targeted sourcing, volume recruitment and mass hiring, end-to-end people management, and more. People4People aims to give businesses the easiest way to scale and recruit new talent, delegating the task to experts with years of experience under their belt.

Every successful business will eventually have to face the question of expanding and taking on new talent. It’s a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be impossible.