So, your business is growing fast, and you can no longer handle it all alone. That's good news! You'll no doubt need to hire people who will handle certain aspects of your business, so you can focus on marketing and other tasks.

Now, adding a new employee to your business isn't something you should take lightly. Remember, once your new employee gets on board, the success of your business would no longer hinge solely on your own input. So, you need to be very careful to avoid hiring the wrong person.

Here are five common mistakes you should avoid when hiring your first employee.

1. Not being sure about what you need

The easiest way to hire the wrong employee is to do so without having a clear-cut outline of the tasks you need help with. So, before you go out to hunt for your first employee, take some time pin down the related tasks that are taking your time. If what you're hiring for is small business ppc management, you don't want to hire a person who has experience only with social media management. Those are different roles.

For a small business like website design Dallas, for example, these tasks could be answering mails and writing content for clients' web pages. By specifically stating these tasks in your job vacancy notice, you’ll most likely find the best person for the job.

2. Not preparing employee policies

Before hiring your first employee, you need to prepare a few policies and terms that dictate how your employees relate with you and your business. Examples of such important policies include dress code, IT policy, daily work schedule, remuneration, and so on.

Putting employee policies in black-and-white and communicating it to potential candidates during the interview will help to avoid disagreements and misunderstandings down the line.

3. Falling for first impressions

Some candidates are so impressive on paper—or during your first encounter with them—that you'd be tempted to hire them right away. But the truth is, many of such candidates turn out to be bad employees later on."

So, never assume that a candidate is perfect because he or she has excellent college grades or makes good eye contact. Rather, disprove such initial impressions and take your time to carefully assess relevant skills and experience.

4. Being unprepared financially

There's much more to hiring an employee than just paying a salary. Depending on the laws in your state or country, you may have to pay employment tax, worker's compensation, and insurance premiums. If you're the extra nice type of employer, you can also pay other remunerations, such as vacation allowance.

So, before you set out to hire your first employee, be sure to check your present income and financial situation. Proceed to hire a full-time employee only if you're financially capable. Otherwise, consider hiring freelancers for the time being.

5. Overlooking the legal steps

By hiring your first employee, you automatically become a bona fide employer. This comes with some liabilities and a lot of paperwork that vary by state and country. To avoid running into issues with your employee and the law, find out about all legal obligations that bind employers in your state or country and abide by all of them.

If you're like most other people, you hate getting your hands dirty with legal paperwork. But it's better to do the right thing than spending heavily on fines later