Ask any business owner and they will tell you how difficult it can be to find and retain top talent. Recruiting and retaining excellent team members is critical to the growth of your company. It’s remarkable how much extra productivity an organization can realize from having top talent on board. A recent study of more than 600,000 researchers, entertainers, politicians, and athletes found that high performers are 400 percent more productive than average performers.

Studies of businesses show similar results, and also reveal that the increase in productivity continues to rise as a job’s complexity does. In highly complex occupations, high performers are up to 800 percent more productive. So it’s easy to understand why every company wants to scoop up top talent. Finding those high performers, though, can be the ultimate challenge!

The secret to attracting high-quality team members is differentiating yourself from other industry players, and showing those folks how joining your company can help them reach their career goals. Today I want to share with you a few tips on how to do this.

It All Starts At Home

Before you start posting your job openings on job sites, consider the fact that you may be able to source a great new employee simply by having conversations with your current employees and referral partners. The truth is that these folks know you, like you, and trust you, and may know others that would be a great fit for your company.

By letting your employees and referral partners know what positions you are looking to fill, and arming them with a card they can hand out to anyone they run across that might fit the bill of a great candidate, they’ll be able to help you on this journey.

Network

Sometimes the best way to find top talent is as simple as hanging out where they do. Industry-specific events where top performers are most likely to be attending or participating offer fantastic opportunities. You’ll not only get a feel for what top talent is up to in your industry, but you will also get the opportunity to get some facetime in with potential candidates, learning more about them and in the process, familiarizing them with your company.

The biggest advantage of this type of recruiting is that the people you are coming into contact with more than likely aren’t actively looking for a new job. This means that there is less competition trying to recruit them and gives you a leg up should you decide to discuss with them the benefits of joining your company.

How Does Your Company Stand Out?

This is very important, and an often overlooked question. It’s important to remember that you are competing against other companies to try and woo top talent to come and work for you. One of the most important questions to ask yourself is what makes you different and/or better than other companies in your industry?

Having a strong and unique value proposition is critical to attracting top talent. People at the top of their game in your industry are not looking to be part of an organization that is simply trying to mimic what others are doing. They want to work for a company with a vision. One that they feel they can not only contribute to but that also will offer opportunities for growth and advancement. You have to be able to share how the company value proposition is lived every day, along with the vision and mission of the organization. You need to clearly articulate this so that they can put themselves in the shoes of an employee and get excited about the prospect of working with your team.

Attracting top talent for your company isn’t a walk in the park. Start by utilizing these three tips to be on your way to locating the next unicorn that is going to help you and your team realize your vision.

If you ask any business owner why they started their business, you are bound to get some flavor of, “I wanted more control over my life,” or “I wanted to be financially independent.”

While these are fantastic reasons to start your own business, the reality of the situation is that most business owners, eager to grow their businesses and make a future for themselves, end up in a different place than they originally expected, losing sight of that control and independence. They often end up getting overly involved in working “for” the business and become its key asset to sustainability.

Business self-sustainability should be a goal of every business owner, whether your business is large or small, no matter what industry you are in. There are many key benefits to running a self-sustainable business. Here are the top four:

Self Sustaining Businesses Are Worth More

If your goal is to build your business and one day sell it, know that businesses that are owner-operated traditionally net a lower sale price than businesses that are absentee-owned.

Why is this? It’s simple economics. A potential buyer isn’t buying your company because they think you are great. They are buying your company because they want cash flow. If the business survives only with you being in it, working for the business, buying your company would require more effort on their part. They will have to find somebody to replace you and/or get involved in the day to day operations of your business. And they probably don’t want that.

This added effort on their part makes the purchase less attractive and they, therefore, will offer you less money for your company. Designing your business to be self-sustaining takes this obstacle off the table, making your organization more attractive to buyers and ultimately getting you a higher price for your business.

Self Sustainability Decreases Risk To The Business

Another advantage to having a self-sustainable business is the lower overall risk it poses to your business’ success. If you run a business, and the majority of its survival and day to day operations depend directly on you, what happens if suddenly you were no longer there? What if you were to get in a horrible car accident on the way to work and were in the hospital for an extended period of time? How would your business continue?

Of course, nobody wants to think of horrible scenarios such as a tragic car accident, but it is something that should be considered. If your business cannot survive without you in it, you are putting your employees and their family’s lives in potential risk. How would they continue to be gainfully employed in a company that can’t function because you physically cannot go to work?

Even more realistically, what about when you need to secure additional funding? The fact of the matter is that banks and investors are much more comfortable with and willing to get into business with companies that have evolved beyond the owner-operator stage. Putting the time in to become self-sustainable will work to your advantage when you are ready to expand and need a loan or are looking to take on investors.

Self Sustainability Turns Your Business Into An Annuity

What if you have no intention of selling your business? If you are in this category, developing a self-sustaining business model is actually even more important.

The truth is even if you love working, you cannot work forever. Eventually, there comes a time in all our lives when we want to slow down, enjoy the life we’ve built and enter retirement. The problem with this is if your business isn’t self-sustainable, and you don’t sell it, it can’t survive. Without you doing the work to make the money, the business, and the money, dries up.

A self-sustainable business can easily become an annuity for you when you retire. You can be the hands-off owner, enjoying the cash flow the business brings you and essentially treating it just like another investment in your portfolio.

Self Sustainability Frees You From Your Business

Looping back to the reasons you started your company in the first place, one of the most important reasons to consider setting your business up to be self-sustainable is personal freedom. You started your business because you wanted to be your own boss and have more control over your life. Why would you stay stuck in the position of feeling like you are a slave to your company?

Creating a self-sustainable business allows you to take a step away when you want to, while your business does what it does every day, unaffected by your absence.  

One of the most common questions a business owner asks when reflecting on his/her company and its performance is whether he/she is too involved in the day to day dealings of the business. A very valid question. After all, when you started your company, you set out to build a business, not work for it. And the truth is that if you have asked yourself this question, the answer is ‘yes.’

That involvement, the neverending pursuit of excellent customer service, the non-stop tweaking of every marketing message and sales pitch, is what got your company to where it is today. But being overly involved in the day to day functions of your business could also be the reason why you are no longer growing as quickly as you once were. Not to mention the toll that operating in this fashion is likely taking on your personal life and your health.

While you may be too involved in the day to day dealings of your company, this is no reason to lose heart. Letting go isn’t easy, but if you want to continue growing your business, it is a necessity you are going to have to get used to.

Nobody Will Ever Do It Like You (At Least Not Completely)
The first hurdle you are going to have to overcome is resolving yourself to the fact that nobody else out there is going to do things exactly as you would. And that’s okay. First off, there is nobody else on this planet like you. Everyone will approach problems and opportunities in different ways. Secondly, the strongest teams are made up of individuals with different backgrounds, work experiences and ways of overcoming challenges. That diversity is essential to finding and implementing the best solutions. There are tons of talented people out there that can help you grow your business. Find the right ones and hire those people.

Hire Smart People
This all revolves around hiring smart people. You need to hire the smartest people you can possibly afford, in order to grow your company in the most optimized way. Too many times business owners get hung up on wanting to always be right or wanting to be the smartest person in the room. Some of the most successful companies on the planet were founded by people who knew they were nowhere near the smartest people in the room. Instead, those founders put together brilliant teams able to make their dreams a reality.

Hiring the most talented people you can find does require a little bit of courage and a fair amount of confidence. Again, you aren’t looking for a version of yourself. Hire people that complement your skillset. Hire people that are great at functions you need for your business that you are not great at. And most importantly, when you find those people, empower them to go out and excel in their positions. Let them do their jobs without getting in the way.

Be Prepared For Failure
Empowering people to go out there and get things done does have a downside. It all but guarantees that they will fail sometimes. Failing is a natural part of building any business. Failing means a team member tried and it simply didn’t work. What they take away and learn from that failure, and how you react to that failure, is going to be the difference between future successes and ultimate defeat.

You need to remember that your team members aren’t you. As a result, they aren’t going to go about things the exact way you would have. To set employees up for success, be very clear on your conditions for satisfaction – the outcomes you expect. And manage to those outcomes, not the way the person goes about getting there.

You also have to remember that team members are human, as are you, and that all humans make mistakes. Deal with a failure in a constructive way, possibly even sharing with your employee a failure of your own from the past. This will show them that you know there will be failures and that what’s really essential is how they respond and shift gears after the failure.

This approach will foster creativity, keep your employees pushing forward and help your business increase its bottom line.

It’s Never Easy, But It’s Necessary
Letting go so you can work “on” your company and not “in” it is never easy. The truth of the matter though, is that if you want to continue growing a long-lasting, profitable business, and one that operates effectively while you’re not present, it is something you absolutely have to do. Start taking the steps now to get back to building a business rather than working for it.