MBA2465 Q&A Wednesday: How do I hire a team with no money? I'm stuck in self-employment.

0:08Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, making building your business a whole lot easier with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenhom. And today's episode is Q &A Wednesday, where I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you've got a question you want to ask, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. Today's question is from Gary, and Gary asks, Omar, I've been a solopreneur for about two years, and I feel stuck. I can't make more revenue without making more hires. But how do I hire a team with no money? I'm making just enough to pay myself and cover my business expenses.

0:49I am sort of stuck in self-employment. Would love your help. Gary. Thanks for the question, Gary. Hiring a team without money might sound like an insurmountable challenge, but it's a situation that many entrepreneurs, including myself, have faced and overcome. In this episode, I will share with you a detailed strategy that leverages creativity, equity, and the power of your vision. to build a team even when you can't offer traditional salaries. I'm not sharing with you theories here. I'm sharing with you what I actually have done, what has worked for me in hopes that you take it on and it works for you.

1:25So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I want to start by saying something that maybe you are not fully aware of or not fully convinced of, and that's people are driven by more than just money. I know that money is important. People need to make money so they can eat and sleep and pay rent and all that kind of stuff. So that is important, but it's not the only thing that's important. It's just one of the reasons why somebody will work for somebody. Just like if you're buying a car for you, maybe the way the car looks is the most important thing, but that's the only reason why you're buying the car.

1:58You're maybe buying it because it's safe or it's got good horsepower or the seats are comfortable or it's got a great stereo. There are other things in play here that make it an appealing car. That's why ugly cars still sell in the market. So in a job, yes, money's important, but people are motivated by purpose, by growth, by the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves, by significance, feeling important. In order for you to make any higher, whether you're paying them a full salary with benefits or you're not going to go the traditional run, you can use some of the strategies I'm talking about today, whatever you choose, you have to share your vision passionately with others.

2:33You have to be compelling, okay? If you can't sell the idea of your business, the idea of what you do to people that are going to be joining you and working for you, it's going to be hard for you to do it for customers who are not getting paid, who have to pay for your product. This is very important. You need to explain not just the what, but the why behind your business. Maybe you're not clear on it. Get clear on your why. Why are you doing all this? Yeah, maybe you want financial freedom, but what else? What are you trying to do in the world? What are you trying to change? How you want to influence your market?

3:05What's the why behind your business? If you can inspire people with your vision, when they meet you, when they speak to you, they might be willing to join you for the journey that you're on and prefer to go with you than somebody who's just offering a salary. And here's the thing. There's not a lot of exciting jobs out there. There's a lot of boring, mundane companies out there and a lot of opportunities that just pay people to just withstand that boring environment. People want to change and people are willing to do that change and go to something exciting if there's some sort of payoff. The payoff doesn't have to be financial.

3:38It could be a challenge in their career, a position they always wanted, an opportunity to be a part of something, to have some ownership. And we're going to talk about some of these options in today's episode. But it all starts with your vision. You've got to be clear on your why so that you can tell people about your why when you are speaking to them, recruiting them, interviewing them, whatever it might be. As much as they're selling themselves to you so they can get the job, you need to also sell your business, your opportunity, your mission to them. You want to attract them as well. It's a two-way street.

4:09So let's start with some of the options if you have no money and you need some help in your business. Let's start with the most obvious one, the one that a lot of people will use, and that's offering equity or profit sharing. When cash is tight, equity or profit sharing can be an attractive alternative. This approach aligns the team's incentives with the success of the business. This is like sales commission. This is like if you need somebody ahead of sales and you're going to give them an X percent of all the sales revenue, they're incentivized to sell more. Now, most sales jobs are based on commission.

4:39Some have a base, like a very low base salary, and then a percentage to commission. Now, you can be very attractive and increase the commission, have no base salary, and do be purely on commission. Good or great salespeople would love this because they know they're great at sales. They know they're going to get the sales. And if they can get incentivized to sell more by getting a higher percentage per sale, this is a lucrative and attractive opportunity for them. But it's crucial, however, to be very transparent and fair about this arrangement, about how it works, how many sales they need. Is there a minimum?

5:11Is it a percentage of profit or percentage of revenue? Clearly outline whatever you agree on, Whether you're giving them a piece of the actual ownership of the business, like they get shares in the business, or they're getting profit sharing based on the profits you make at the end of the month or the end of the year. You can agree on something simple. A simple one or two page contract can actually be all you need. But the point here is, is that you are trading up a little bit of the back end instead of the front end. Back end meaning how much money you make, the profits, front end being salary, right?

5:43Money that you just kind of give out just for being there. This also leans into another option, which is co-founders, not just employees. Many entrepreneurs at the start, when they're just solopreneuring like what Gary's doing, they look out for co-founders. They say, hey, I don't know how to code. You are a coding genius. You are a tech giant, right? Can you help me build my app? I'll sell the app. You do the building. I don't have any salary. We're just a startup, but I'll give you ownership. I'll make you a co-founder. So instead of trying to hire employees in the traditional sense, you can look for co-founders or partners.

6:17These are individuals who are willing to invest their time and maybe even some money into your business in exchange for more of a significant stake. This relationship is more about collaboration. This is like a marriage. You want to make sure that you have shared risk and that this person is right for you in the long run. That's it. They are a partner. It's very hard to get rid of co-founders once they're on the books. This is my least favorite option because it's hard to get right. Now, I've been fortunate enough to have a co-founder, Nicole, who's been fantastic and it worked out for me and she's everything I'm not.

6:50So we compliment each other very well. But this is very hard to get. I'm not saying don't look for this option. Don't go for this option. It's my least favorite because in essence, I don't like giving up equity or giving up ownership if I can avoid it. In my case, Nicole's my wife. So it's sort of in the family, a little bit different. But the point here is, is that if you're getting somebody from the outside, somebody who is great at what they do, it might be worth it for you to give up the equity. It's like they say, it's better to have 50 percent of watermelon than 100 percent of a grape, more fruit.

7:19The next option is my favorite option, leveraging freelancers and interns. In the early stages, you may not need full time staff, right? You're in that solopreneur stage. Freelancers and interns are a great option. I love freelancers because you're getting experienced people to come in and work as they go, work as needed, hourly basis, project base. And if you are an agency or a product business, you're only going to pay them when you make money. So you can draft some terms. It's like, hey, say, for example, they will charge$5 ,000 for an amount of work. You can say to them, great, I will pay you the$5 ,000, but I get paid from my client for the service in 60 days.

8:00so I will pay you in 75 days, whatever it might be. So you first make the money and then you pay the freelancer after. And most freelancers are okay with this because this is sort of the arrangement that they have. Some freelancers want some money up front and that's understandable, but the point here is that you're not paying an ongoing salary, only paying for what you need to make the money you need. And this is actually easy to scale. Say, for example, you're a social media manager and that's your agency. And every time you bring on a client, You need somebody to create social media content and videos and snippets and things like that.

8:33And each client needs about$2 ,000 worth of work. You charge your clients$4 ,000. Every time you bring on that freelancer to do the work, you're making$2 ,000. They're doing all the work. Maybe you're doing some of the communication and this is just easy to scale. You can get another client and another client and another client. For every client, you can ask the freelancer to do more work or get another freelancer if they're tapped out. Interns is another option. People love this idea of getting something for nothing, but interns are not as experienced as a professional freelancer. They're not coming in knowing how to do something.

9:04You're going to have to train them. You're going to have to show them. And they're not going to be there for the long run. Most interns do an internship for, you know, three months, six months, a year max, and then they leave. And then they leave with all that knowledge and all that training that you invested in them. So just know that this is a temporary fix, a temporary stopgap. While freelancers, you can tap into their expertise, their work, whenever you like. I'm also a big believer that it's actually cheaper for you to work with a highly skilled professional, pay them a little bit more, increase your margins so that you can afford it rather than working with an intern that really doesn't know much about what you do and having to gear up to the expert level.

9:42Here's one that a lot of people don't think about, but it's bartering. Yep. Look for other businesses who might be willing to trade something for something. What does that mean? That means, say, for example, you have a YouTube channel. Maybe you have a growing email list. Maybe you have a growing podcast and they'd be willing to do some service that they provide that your business needs if they can get on your newsletter or they can get on your podcast. Sometimes this is a good way to just get started with a relationship without money being exchanged. Got to get creative, but it's a way to get work done without upfront costs, though it does require clear agreements and some sort of mutual understanding of what the value exchange is, but it is an option you might want to explore.

10:24What else can you do? Well, there's always government grants and incubators, and I'm going to go a little bit in depth with this. Let's talk about grants. A lot of people think grants are a black hole. How do I get a grant? How long does it take? Where do I apply? Where are the forms? It can be confusing, but there's a lot of opportunity that people don't know about. Now, there's actually companies out there. If you Google them, if you just Google government grant services, government grant agencies, whatever you Google, there are companies that specialize in this where they're like, hey, we know all the grants that are out there for businesses.

10:56We know all the little things that people don't know about all the opportunities that are coming up in the pipeline or about to expire. This is their jam, right? This is what they do for a living. And they will work on getting you a grant for free upfront costs, meaning they're not going to ask you for any money in the beginning, but they'll take a percentage of the grant amount. So essentially, you're starting with zero dollars, but you can potentially get tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars by having this company work for you to get a grant. The way they work is that they earn the grant on your behalf.

11:27The grant payment gets paid to them, and then they pay you after they take their cut. Again, I've tried this. I've done this. There are a lot of government grants out there for marketing and export sales. Depending on where you live and what country you're in. There's a lot of different options. I've worked with an agency. We still work with this agency because they're so wonderful. And a lot of these agencies will take about 10, 15, sometimes 20 % of the grant. But trust me, in my opinion, if it's a reasonable percentage, it's worth it. Why? Because it's a lot of work to know what grants to go after, to know how to fill the paperwork properly, how to submit things, what gets approved, what are the things you need to do.

12:01They will coach you through that because they want to make money too, right? This is actually like one of the easiest ways to fund your company and be able to then hire other people with it. In fact, a lot of grants, when you do take that money and use it for the right purpose for the grant, you can hires, let's say for marketing for a marketing grant, then you're more eligible for another one the following year. So check out your local area or country, do a search, and I'm sure you'll find some agencies that are willing to do the legwork for you for the percentage of the grant. To me, this is a no brainer, really, really easy, low-hanging fruit.

12:35Incubators. Incubators are another option. A lot of people think of Y Combinator, which is a big startup incubator, but you don't have to go to the big-time Silicon Valley incubators. There's a lot of smaller incubators in your area. Again, search for it on Google. It's very, very simple. Another easy, low-cost option is to just go to a co-working space. There's a lot of co-working spaces, like a WeWork, like a local startup co-working space. In Sydney, there's Fishburners, which is a subsidized government co-working space for startups. And these incubators or these co-working spaces offer incredible benefits, like over$200 ,000 in benefits, like free hosting, discounts on software, discounts on services.

13:12So you can really save a lot of your running costs by being part of these organizations. The startup is like paying something between$100 and$300 or$400 a month. Pretty, pretty inexpensive for the benefits you're going to get. What else can you do when you're on a major budget when it comes to hiring? Remote work, flexible teams. A lot of people don't realize that there is really good talent overseas, wherever you are, in other places, parts of the world that are a fraction of the price of what you're willing to pay for a local hire. You know that we've hired many of our team members from the Philippines.

13:44The Philippines has really well-educated people, good English skills, hardworking. It's not like you don't have to vet them. You have to vet them and interview and do your research and make sure you get the best of the best. But onlinejobs.ph is a great option for you to find a great talent out of the Philippines. But Philippines is just one option. There's lots of options. Eastern Europe, Poland, South America, Argentina is becoming a big hub for remote work and remote hires. Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. If you're okay with the remote work setup and the time zone difference is not too bad or works for you, then this is a great way to get a great hire for a fraction of the cost you think it's going to cost you.

14:22It also widens the pool of potential team members or talent you're looking for. It reduces the cost associated with a physical office. It gives people more of a flexible working schedule and a whole lot more. So you know that I'm a big fan of remote work. I've been doing it for a very long time, for over 15 years, built my whole team over at Webinar Ninja for over 10 years remotely. It's not just all roses though. There are challenges with remote work, but there are a lot of big advantages. There you have it, guys. Those are my tips. Those are my answers to Gary, who is solopreneuring, looking to make a hire, even though he can't afford it at the moment.

14:56How does he get out of that cycle? And I want to give one final tip. This is basically the mother of all tips. This is really what's going to get everything and all these tips going and give you an opportunity to utilize everything I just mentioned. And that's networking relentlessly. You've got to network relentlessly. I can't express this enough. Networking isn't just about finding customers or investors. It's also a way to meet potential team members. Attend industry meetups, join online forums, and participate as much as possible. Any opportunity you get to be part of any entrepreneurial community, any business meetup or anything like that, because you'll find freelancers there.

15:32You'll find agencies that help with what you're looking for. The more you share your story and share your vision and also things that you need to fulfill that vision, the more likely you'll come across people who believe in your vision and want to help, want to contribute, want to serve. So get out there. Don't just sit there in your home office. Networking is essential. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 MBA Show. If you got a question you want to ask, just like Gary did, go ahead and email me over at omar at 100mba.net. I'll make sure to answer right here on Q &A Wednesday. If you love this podcast, if you love what you heard today, you found it useful, you found any of our episodes or lessons useful, you can do us a huge solid by just doing something very simple, hitting the follow button on the podcast app you're listening to right now.

16:15Whether it's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, it doesn't matter what you're using. By following the show, you help us grow. You send a signal to the algorithm that the show is pretty good and that it reaches other audiences. By doing that, it actually gives us more reach. And by doing that, we grow. And when we grow, we reinvest in this podcast so that we can continue to provide better and better business lessons for you. So you're doing us a favor, but you're also doing yourself a favor. Thanks so much in advance for doing that. Before I go, I wanna leave you with this. What I've learned in over 20 years of entrepreneurship is that business is about being resourceful.

16:49It's about being creative. It's about figuring out ways to do things differently, achieving your goals in untraditional ways. There's always a way to do something. There's always a different path. Just gotta be willing to do that. Gotta be willing to try and get out of your comfort zone. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in the next episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

17:16Thank you.