It can be a tough decision building a team. Do you outsource to people who are already knowledgeable and usually charge what they are worth for good reason, or do you hire the upstart who may be a little wet behind the ears, is willing to learn but you have to spend time and money training them?

Which Door Should You Open?

This is one of the major questions we’ve had to face over the years. Perhaps you have too. On one hand, hiring a seasoned, knowledgeable person means you can get the job done quickly. What can take one hour for you takes them 5 or 10 minutes so in reality you don’t really pay out that much more even though their rates are higher. But good experienced people are really, really hard to come by. Which is why they say if you find someone like that, hang on tight. While I wholeheartedly agree with that, my experience also tells me that these people usually have ambitions of their own. That is not a bad thing at all. In fact it is great – if you can afford to keep them busy and keep them challenged.

Most of you know that I don’t take clients anymore but I still keep a handful. Not because I have to have clients to stay afloat but because I really enjoy the challenge these clients bring me. They work with advanced marketing strategies and request impossible things that make me push the limits of our knowledge and skill set. In other words, I grow too working on their tasks. Make no mistake, all the while we are getting paid well too.

Which is where the issue comes in when you are just starting out or beginning to build a team. At that point, you usually can’t afford to keep seasoned people like that for long. You could (and should) hire them on a project basis, usually something you need done quickly and expertly. You’ll always have projects like that. But to actually join and stay committed to your business and team? Not saying it is impossible, there are ways to keep people like that, just that it’s tough.

The other choice is to take that chance on the fresher, new people and train them up. This is not a rule set in stone but the one observation I made is those whom you train up and bring them along the ride as you grow tend to be more loyal. Perhaps because you encounter hardship and success together, perhaps it is because you gave them a chance, perhaps its your management style. I don’t know. It is certainly the case for us. Will there be exceptions to the rule? Yes of course. But it also shows that training your people can pay back very well.

Do you have people you need to get trained especially on technical issues? Send them back to school. Let us help train them.