Attracting skilled workers is biggest challenge for small businesses

Jaluum Herberts Luwizza

Someone once asked me, what has been the hardest part of running and growing your business in the last six or so years!?

As a business man myself and a business/investment consultant with YOUNG TREPS Business Management & Consulting, something that has given me the opportunity to work with thousands of other business people, I can say hiring the right people has been the hardest part of my business journey and many that I have had the chance to work and interact with.

For any business to work, grow and succeed you have to have the right people behind it.

Every business is as good as the people behind it yet getting those people is one hell of a task.

Putting together a team that will bring an idea to life and propel it forward is no easy feat.

It's actually harder than even raising capital some thing most people dread. It's time consuming, it consumes money and is outrightly cumbersome.

For every one great employee, you will have tried out 19 others.

This is true for mainly startups because as a start up you don't have the employer appeal to attract the best out there.

By employer appeal I mean, your not that organisation most employees would fancy or kill to work for as your just building your brand.

Great talent comes at a huge cost, everyone is scrambling around for them and you don't have what it takes to attract them.

So you have to look out for the right employees at a budget.

People with the right attitude but shortage of experience then work with them to fine tune them into what it is you want them to be whilst being open to the reality of them being snapped by the industry's eagles who are always waiting for finished products and have the ability to pay them better.

Any start-up entrepreneur/owner will tell this is their biggest nightmare.

Many people have mastered the art of passing interviews with all these tutorials online.

They'll perform so superbly in the interview only to get hired and the reality hits every one, they don't know sh*t hahaha.

Now you've wasted time trying to recruit and ended up with a good candidate that ended up being a total waste of time.

Very eloquent during the interviews but can't produce the goods.

They say you have to kiss a thousand frogs before you find the prince and I highly believe this is the same scenario too with putting together a startup team.

And for the princes/and princesses you get/find keeping them becomes the next biggest huddle with every one out there prowling for great talent.

If you find it, do everything possible within your means to make sure it stays starting with creating a positive work environment that allows people to express themselves and grow both in the career and outside their career.

A great work culture because toxicity in a workplace will drive out employees faster than anything else even faster than small pay.

So as you prepare for your start up, prepare for this hectic experience too.

Focus on building your employer ratings to make it easier for you to attract talent in the long run as you grow bigger and bigger.

Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is a Speaker, Writer, Columnist with the C.E.O Magazine and Contributor with the Nile Post. He is also a Business Consultant with YOUNG TREP East Africa's No.1 Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.

www.theyoungtreps.com