I’m here to make a case for my good friend JD – that is, job descriptions!
When you’re looking for a job in a specific area or for a specific company, how often have you gone to a website to look for a “Work for Us” link or a “For Hire” page? Hopefully pretty often, because honestly that’s always the best place to start.
With that said, I now have to wonder why more of us entrepreneurs don’t go that route when we’re looking to hire for our own companies?
See, what once was the norm is now often chaos incarnate.
Rather than posting a job description (JD), so many choose the route of social media and stop there.
Looking to hire an assistant to work remotely? Oh just post in a Facebook group – “Know any good VAs??” And then…what? Expect that to be worth your time? Expect the perfect assistant to knock on your virtual door?
I’ve done it, too, so I get the thinking behind it…but ooph. What a time suck.
That’s why I’m telling you now – if you’re looking to hire someone, take the time to write out a FULL job description. Treat your business like an actual business, not a “side hustle” or “extra income gig”, and you’ll find that you’re all the more likely to be successful. Just in the case of virtual assistants (VAs) alone, one person might be looking to hire a VA to run her social media while another might expect the VA to tackle e-mails and yet another might want a VA to manage her schedule; if you’re not clear on exactly what you want, you’ll end up spending hours wading through applicants who aren’t anywhere close to being the right fit for you and your business.
Writing a Job Description for Yourself
For Hire
Create a “for hire” page on your website, even if you don’t yet have any positions available. You don’t even have to make it a live page, but at least having it ready to go will save you time when it is finally time to hire someone. Not only that, but those interested in the position will be all the more familiar with exactly what you do and what you’re looking for (which again is still a timesaver for you because you won’t have to spend hours answering questions from those seeking clarity). Yes, you’ll still end up with a dozen random resumes in your inbox, but those are easily discarded and the good ones will be all the more apparent.
Job Description – What’s Yours?
Along those lines, I’m curious what your job description looks like. Whether you’re in the early stages of your business or have been doing it for years, it’s important that you take the time to write out a job description for your position. Don’t just stick a title on yourself and expect growth – it’s hard to track growth without that baseline.
Just as you would were you working for someone else, take the time each year to review your JD and analyze your efforts – what are you strengths vs weaknesses? Do you need to break off a piece of that JD and hand it off to someone else? Have you been focusing on projects well outside your JD that you need evaluate for effectiveness?
Unless your blog or online business truly is a side hustle and you expect it to forever be so, it’s incredibly important that you treat this as a business, just like you would were it brick-and-mortar. Don’t wait until you’re well into year two to develop a mission statement, give yourself a job description, or map out your five year goals. Have faith in your passions and trust that the time you put into fleshing these pieces out will come back to you tenfold.
That said, I’d love for you to comment below and let me know –
