Hiring, retaining and firing can be difficult for any business, no matter what industry you are in. Like any new relationship, business or romantic, it all comes down to communication and trust for best results.
As an entrepreneur, don’t wait until you’re drowning in work before hiring people. I’ve been told by others, “I don’t have time to hire anyone.” This is flawed thinking, because hiring should always be at the forefront. Delegation is the only true way that multitasking works, and if you hire well, it’s the next best thing to cloning yourself.
Companies succeed and fail on the basis of whom they hire. If you’re an overworked founder and won’t stop what you’re doing in order to hire people, it’s impossible to rescue yourself.
Companies succeed and fail on the basis of whom they hire. If you’re an overworked founder and won’t stop what you’re doing in order to hire people, it’s impossible to rescue yourself. It places you into a vicious cycle where completing work and being successful just creates even more work, and it’s a cycle that ultimately can only end in failure.
Sure, you can work yourself every hour of the day, make your lists and priorities as efficient as possible and use all the life hacks you can think of, but you will never (ever) finish everything you want to complete, that way. If you feel like you’re working endlessly every day and just treading water, it’s a sign that you need to hire someone to help. You can tell yourself that one day you’ll stop working so much, but ambition is a wicked demon. My 16-to-20-hour workdays made my businesses vastly successful, but that success came at enormous personal cost. Life is too short and I will never do that again.
Holding onto the idea of “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” is a trust issue at its core. As the founder and single employee for JuicyAds during the early years, I learned that it was not about finding someone qualified; it was about finding trustworthy people. By always looking to hire the right people and surrounding yourself with people who are not only just as good but better than you at certain tasks — and giving them the tools they need to succeed — you allow trust to build. We recently used this approach in hiring our new marketing and brand manager, and it is how we are also hiring for open positions for developers and data analysis. But, hiring these kinds of people can be a little more tricky when you’re in the adult industry.
It was two months into our relationship when I finally broke the news to my girlfriend (now wife) that I worked in porn. It is that moment when you find out how tolerant a person really is! Thankfully, it went well. When hiring new contractors or employees, though, it can be a delicate topic and there are many approaches. One method is to tell them late in the hiring process, or hide the nature of the business entirely. People working with data, for example, may not even need to know that the data they are working with relates to performance of advertisers who happen to be promoting porn. But then you run the risk of losing that person at any time when they find out — just like keeping a secret from your partner.
The other approach is to tell people right away that it’s an adult gig. This is the approach I prefer, because it does not waste anyone’s time. Thankfully, we rarely have to “break the news,” since most candidates are familiar with our brand. This allows people to make a choice, and avoid the feelings of betrayal when they find out the truth. It’s always easier to live a life where you don’t have to lie to people, and the same goes for your company.
So, now they know they’re going to be working in porn (and most people think it’s cool) but how do you get past the trust issues of bringing in someone new? That’s a tough one. Our best hires have always come through referrals from people I know, rather than people “walking in off the street.” The fact is, most of the best hires never end up looking at job boards. They get their next job through word of mouth from their network of friends, family or co-workers (current and former). So, it’s important to let people know you are looking for someone and you might just find a candidate who’s well-qualified, that can be trusted from the start.
Once you’ve hired your dream candidates, it’s a matter of managing expectations from the company and keeping the hires happy. Our best offerings are that contractors work from their home country, choose their own hours, have a 10-second commute and can take off as much time as they want. This sounds crazy, but our team is very motivated and they know that their contract renewal is determined by their performance. Many of our team members used to work at competing companies, were not happy at how they were treated and are much happier now. Keeping talent is much more than just a big salary — it’s about how someone feels every day when they’re working. How much someone is earning is a lot less important than being happy while they do it.
It is very common for co-founders to be friends and for entrepreneurs to hire people close to them. I lost my best friend because I had to fire them. The following year I lost another close friend because our business styles were completely misaligned for a partnership. That is when most people start following the “Don’t hire family and friends” rule, but there is a better way.
By communicating well and setting boundaries from the start, you are more likely to maintain the friendship no matter what. Friends who are aware that there are issues (and fail to correct them) are less likely to be blindsided and upset when they are fired. When I hired my best friend almost eight years ago, we were looking for someone with her skills and she was unhappy at her corporate gig. We were doing each other a favor. However, since my first marriage was already on the rocks with a woman who was exceptionally irrational and jealous, it was like throwing a grenade into my relationship.
My ex-wife and I already fought about everything, but our company’s newest hire was explosive. While my ex-wife wanted her gone for no other reason than that she was a woman, our friendship outlived my marriage because she was doing her job. However, over time it became clear she could no longer do the tasks she had been hired for. We attempted to navigate the struggles through communication and making changes to the position, but it was not getting better and she was taking advantage of our friendship. By the time I had to make the fateful phone call to end her employment, it was too late to reinforce the expectations and boundaries between work and the friendship.
Humans in general do very well with adding more and more to their lives. We do well adding more friends, expanding family and earning more money. The things that we struggle with and that cripple us are losses of those things. You really never know how people are going to react when their contract is terminated. People who I thought would blow up have taken the news well, while normally level-headed people have burst into tears. While my friend initially seemed to take the news well, every conversation after being let go was filled with guilt trips, passive aggression and resentment. That was almost eight years ago and we haven’t spoken since.
Learning from all of this, I’ve done many consulting gigs with close friends. It was made clear from the start that if it’s not working out and the partnership is terminated, that the friendship would remain with no hard feelings. I can happily say that when the time came for one of those gigs to end, the friendship remained strong. There are no hard feelings to this day.
If the problem is that the person lacks ability, the team synergy is bad or they are not performing, they need to be cut loose as quickly as possible. It does not matter who they are. Don’t try to fit a round peg in a square hole, because it just delays the inevitable. If you have hired well, they are capable of their tasks and have been given the tools to succeed, but you are still not seeing the results you expect, it might be the position that is broken. Maybe the expectations are too high, or the end result won’t be good no matter who tackles it. That is when it’s critical to pivot and make changes to the job rather than throwing out an exceptional hire. Being able to tell the difference is the sign of a good leader.
Juicy Jay is the CEO and founder of JuicyAds, the Sexy Advertising Network. You can follow Jay on Twitter @juicyads, JuicyAds.com or Facebook.com/JuicyAds.
