I would like to discuss managing people and your first employees. I will not overestimate if I would say that hiring and working with the right team is a key and is what is going to make your business a success. Excellent people will make your business excel and your job as a leader is to find those people, support them and keep them motivated.

I have had many negative experience with hiring people, but many more positive and I can say that hiring the right people comes with experience. You will need to learn how to trust your intuition and sixth sense when it comes to hiring people.

Over the years of trial and error I have developed the following rules when it comes to people management.

First of all when you are just starting off it is in many cases easier and much more fun to start a business with someone. I have not had good experience with starting a business with a friend, but I think it works great to start a business with acquaintance who shares similar interests and passion as you are. You should only get people on board who are different from you and have a different set of skills so you compliment each other and there is a healthy balance. You should be extremely careful when choosing a right partner, before you start dividing shares or talk money. offer to work on a project together (it even can be unrelated to your business) to find out if you can even work together. If you do not find out it in the beginning and after a first meeting give this person third of the company (i did that) and it does not work out, there will be many tears afterwards.

If you do not find a right partner in the very beginning do not get discouraged, you can start the business on your own and find a partner as you move forward. Then you will know which skills you are missing and where you would need specialized help: is it IT? Sales? Marketing? Finance?

So if you are just starting out do not rush into hiring your first employee. I would highly recommend to first start working with freelancers, you can find some really great professionals on platforms such as upWork etc. It is not only good because of the cost saving side of it, but is also important experience for you to start learning how you manage other people. How you delegate the work, how you control it and give feedback etc.

Other good way to learn is to hire an intern for the summer. It will be a great opportunity for a young person to get an insight in what it means to start a company and you can polish your management skills and delegate some of your tasks. Word of caution: only hire an intern if you are planning to spend time with him or her and you have a very clearly task which need to be accomplished. If the task is unclear none of you will be satisfied with the results.
From the very beginning you will need to learn how to prioritize your tasks and how to delegate. If you do not you will soon have a burn out and lose all your passion. All you time and energy need to be concentrated on talking to your customers and getting your sales up. All the rest is secondary, hence can be outsourced. If you can not afford hiring someone, get a freelancer or an intern. As a CEO you need to have a good knowledge and be able to manage every aspect of your business, but as soon as you can afford it give it over to someone else and concentrate on the core.

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