I need to hire a right hand. Is better someone not so skilled but that I trust and invest in her growth or someone already skilled? pros and cons

Question

I have a very small company, just me, where I give courses and consultancy and I am starting to feel overloaded. I have zero experience in project managing and the business is growing almost on its own. Now I decided to hire someone to help me with everything that needs to be done but does not need to be me to one who does it. She is really a good friend, however, she is not very actualized now. My plan is to pay for the actualization courses for her so we grow together. What are the pro and cons of this kind of thinking?

Answer 1

You are asking two questions, but in fact there should be three:

1. Should I hire someone already skilled?
2. Should I hire someone unskilled and invest in them?
3. Is it a good idea to hire friends? (family falls into the same category).

Just to get it out of the way, hiring family and friends is usually a bad idea.

Even if you are good friends and you think your friendship will survive if this working arrangement goes south - like for example, you lose customers for some reason (COVID left many without a job or a business out of the blue, with no fault of their own) and can't afford to pay her - do you really want to put the friendship to the test by saying "Sorry, you are fired now!"?

There are plenty of other reasons why this is a bad idea, but I'll resume myself to the above and let you do your own research and think about it from the perspective of your particular context.

The question then if you should invest in someone unskilled or hire a person that's already experienced, and the answer to this can only be another question. "What do you need exactly?"

You say you want to hire someone to help you with everything that needs to be done? What's that exactly? Have you made a list? If someone else does those things how much time does it free for you? Is that enough time to fill a full time job, or can a part time job do it? Are those things anyone could do or do you need specific skills? Which are those skills and how long do you estimate it takes someone to acquire them?

Do you have a budget? How much are you willing to pay? Is that sustainable for you to do each month? Will you be doing the hiring yourself?

Have you even written the job description yet? I don't even want to remember how many times I've interviewed for jobs matching my skill level only to then be called back and told that "we've reconsidered the position and we are now looking for a junior", simply because they didn't think enough about what they needed and realized it only after wasting candidates and their own time discussing it in interviews. So think about it! You might even realize that you can outsource this to a service provider or a freelancer, and you don't need to hire anyone (which is another way to look at the situation: are you hiring because it's a good time to grow your company, or do you just need some help with getting rid of things that are in your way?)

There is a lot of pros and cons people might list (for example), but only you can evaluate them and weigh them in against each other. But it all starts with knowing what exactly you want.

Answer 2

The issue with your question is that it is a false choice (excluding #3). You won't ever really experience two polar opposites as a choice--skilled, nonskilled. It is a logical fallacy.

And, you're trying to let the tail wag the dog, in that you have someone you want to hire and you're trying to figure out the proper role for that person. It works better to figure out the role, then find the right person to fit it.

Start with your needs analysis. What do you need that role to do? What are the ongoing deliverables that the role will deliver? What gaps in delivery do you have now that the role might fill? When you have answered those questions, then the hiring/selection criteria--knowledge, skills, and abilities--will emerge.

Then score your candidates against those criteria. The best fit gets the job, i.e., the dog wagged the tail.

Regarding #3: no...just no. The odds that it would work out are slim. It could, but what would happen with near 100% certainty is that your friendship dynamic would change and not for the better.