26 Jun Tips For Entrepreneurs on Hiring vs. Outsourcing
You never forget having to fire someone. And unfortunately, I have had to fire quite a few people. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, new businesses sprouted up quickly—and they grew their operations just as aggressively. As a result, these companies tended to over-hire, or hire beyond their means. I served as a human resources consultant for a number of startups early on in my career, during a period that overlapped with the bursting of the dot-com bubble. And as you might imagine, one of my job functions was to fire people. Most CEOs don’t relish that task, anyway, so they often would outsource it.
I mention this stage of my career because it’s an anecdote that draws attention to the difference between hiring and outsourcing labor. This paradigm is an important one for executives at startups to embrace. This subject is broached frequently at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, where I teach entrepreneurship courses. Whether at Temple or in my role as executive director of Robin Hood Ventures, I work daily with students from all majors and CEOs from all walks of life on how to write business plans, and build and scale their businesses.
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