Building your team

Every person behind a successful business will tell you about the importance of having the right team or people by your side, Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to help him start, Bill Gates had Paul Allen even Frodo had the fellowship of nine. It is important to think about your team when starting or scaling your business venture.

Assembling your team

Once you have your business plan and vision, the next step to making your idea a reality is to start bringing together your team. It may start off small at the start and grow over time or you may continue to scale and outsource parts of your business to other providers either way we have highlighted some points to consider and organisations who are able to help.

It is important to note that if you are not sure about the process for your situation you should speak to a HR professional, a list of companies who can advise/ provide services can be found on our business directory here.

Deciding who you need

The first step is to look at your business model and identify what skills you will need to deliver on it, then you can start to map out what role you will need to hire. If you do not intend to hire anyone but are looking to outsource areas to contractors you can find more information in the outsourcing and contracting section below.

You may feel you can run all parts of your business now without having to hire in or outsource anything however it is good to develop a plan at the start so when your business grows you have an idea of what roles you will need to bring in at what point.

Hiring in staff

When hiring your staff you want to make sure you employ the right people for your business and the role, take time to think about the skills, experience and qualities you are looking for when writing the job description and interviewing potential candidates. 

As part of the hiring process you should create some employment policies covering areas such as leave/ absence, pay/ benefits, working hours, overtime, maternity/paternity/adoption, conduct/ discipline. For more information on these areas you should visit the gov.gg page on employment below.

Once you have your job description you will need to consider the ways in which you are going to advertise the role this may be through social media, local publications or recruitment agencies. Make sure to be clear with your advertising about what skills, experience and work is required from the applicant. 

Before you start the process of hiring you should make yourself familiar with the Guernsey Employment law basics and policies, you can find out more information with the link below.

For more information on the process you can visit the Gov page here.

States of Guernsey Employer Guide

Outsourcing

If you have any doubts about the legal requirements of employing staff you could consider outsourcing that function to a HR company. These companies can provide elements such as employment contracts, payroll administration, policy drafting, discipline and grievance procedures and even employee screening prior to offering them a contract all need to be considered. 

When looking at outsourcing make sure you are clear on what your requirements are before approaching companies.

A list of businesses can be found here on our business directory.

Business Directory

Support Structure

The last part of your team is the most important part, your support structure, i.e. the ones who are going to listen to you and give you advice, motivation and reassurance for when it gets tough. This may consist of a mentor, business coach or members of your family. 

It is important to consider this part as starting a business is a very stressful activity and we would recommend that you have a solid support structure in place before you start.

You can find out more about professional networks in Guernsey here or mentoring opportunities on our page here.

Networks