Re: Small Business wants to grow

[Arnold Colodner <Arnold_Colodner -at- MAIL -dot- STIL -dot- SCITEX -dot- COM>]

     Why not try hiring a pensioner or retired person. They are quite
     reliable, would welcome flexible hours, probably have a pension, so
     they don't expect a full-blown salary. And they are experienced. I am
     sure they would welcome the work, too.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Small Business wants to grow
Author:  Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET> at INTERNET
Date:    4/3/97 6:41 PM


I'm a two-person, soon to be one-person shop. (My employee's husband
got a great job in Kansas City, and she'd rather stay with him than
me.)

I sort of lucked into finding her, but this time around it looks like
I'll have to do the job ad thing.

My problem is that I don't want to waste a lot of my time or the
interviewee's time if we won't work for each other, but I also don't
want to tell my life story in the job ad.

Here are the things I'm not sure how to express in a job ad:

1: As a small business, I can't offer much in the way of benefits. I
try to pay a decent wage, but have no health or pension setup. I do
believe in always making payroll (I have a slush fund to cover me when
clients pay late).  I do offer lots of flexibility - as long as the
work gets done (and done well), I don't care where or when it gets
done.

2: Many qualified people come from corporations. I don't necessarily
have a problem with this, *except* that many of them have always had
system administrators to take care of their computer problems. I would
prefer someone who was more responsible for their own computer
problems. The second part of this is that they would want pay that is
at least equal to what they're making, but if I have to train them in
computer maintenance (or have to pick up those tasks myself), I'm not
making billables, and therefore they aren't worth as much to me.

3: I'm willing to train a new writer, but I'm not sure how to find
them, or how to tell if they'll work out. Does anyone have any
suggestions for interviewing new writers? I'm guessing attitude plays
a big part, but do you have any other ideas?

I'd appreciate any feedback on how to handle this. I'd also like to
know if anyone would be remotely interested in working for me under
these arrangements.

Thanks for your insights -

Barb

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