Growing & Letting Go — How and Why I Decided to Expand the Wild & Precious Team

After posting about making a hire for the business, I had a handful of individuals reach out to me, interested in hearing the “hows” and “whys” behind the decision to expand my team, so I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to share: why it was time, why it took so long and how it all happened.

I quickly realized after opening the shop in August, that in order to do all that I wanted to — including staying home to spend quality time with my kids — I needed more help. 

Why it was time

Here’s a few realizations I made while contemplating the decision to hire a new employee at at Wild & Precious:

• I had no time to design. I was not able to produce new products as quickly or as often as I wanted because my focus was on other areas of the business. Other areas that could be completed by someone else if I had help.
• Was everything getting done? Yes. But not to the quality or standard I always wanted. I wasn’t able to maintain the attention to detail I wanted to with so many things on my plate. 
• Items on my to-do list became just thoughts and ideas. If they actually made it on my list, they sat there for months untouched. Heck, some of them have been on there for YEARS!
• I desired more time with my family that allowed me to unplug and step away from my phone for a bit. I worried about losing balance and perspective.

And the recurring question I kept coming back to was: “can I give up control?” This was the primary reason that hiring a small team of employees took so long!

If you haven’t realized it yet, this business is like another child to me. Giving up control is incredibly difficult. If you’re a fellow business owner, I’m sure you can relate. You can hire the absolute best people (which I do believe I have some pretty good ones — the best ones) but nobody, not my husband or even my mother, will ever care more about the business than me. 

The misconception that I have though, is that no one can do it better, and that just isn’t true. Yes, there are absolutely parts of the business that can only be done by me, but lots of the business can be done by someone else. And guess what?! It can be done EVEN BETTER than myself! 

Another obvious question to consider when contemplating hiring employees is “can I afford to do it?” This is a nerve-wracking part of the decision-making process, but ultimately, I believe if you want to grow and expand, hiring is essential…when the time is right of course! I realized it was time to hire when I didn’t have time to complete the portions of my business that make me money — like the designing! Not a great business strategy. I can actually allow myself to focus on business growth when I have fewer tasks on my plate. And in some ways, having individuals on payroll makes me want to work that much harder. 

How it happened

I’m a person of faith and I often prayed for some guidance and just hoped that I’d receive a sign, or that something or someone would just fall into my lap. Well, my friends, I’m one lucky gal, because that’s pretty much what happened with the most recent hire of Megan, our Digital Marketing Manager. 

Did you know Megan and I actually went to the same grade school? We both remember (almost) being kindergarten and middle school buddies. Small world, am I right?? A few months ago, we re-connected via a Facebook post that my husband screenshotted and sent to me — which by the way, had ZERO to do with her current role. So if you’re sitting there wondering where I posted the job listing, how I came up with a description and how I interviewed, I don’t have any traditional answers to that. Apparently, all I have is that it was meant to be. 

So there you have it, a little behind the scenes of the thoughts, questions and process behind making a small business hire. Have questions? Of course you can always comment below, email or message me. And stay tuned! In the next blog post, you’ll get to learn a little bit more about who is working for Wild & Precious! 

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Opal