Dr Jeff Cornwall

Inc.com reports that staffing is becoming a growing concern among entrepreneurs now that the economy is heating up.
One of the ways that smaller companies can compete for staff is to make them convenient and flexible places to work by offering perks that employees want. StartupJournal has a good overview of the types of conveniences that many growing companies offer.
There are other ways to attract good talent. I found that just listening to what the employee really wants and being flexible in how you structure the offer and the job can be very effective. Here is a story from our business that I told in a post from last year.

There was a manager I wanted to hire to run a new program we were starting, as he was one of the best in our industry. He worked for a large, national company. I knew I could not match his salary, but I did not give up.
I got to know him and found out what he was really looking for in his career and in a job. He wanted to have more control over his department. That was easy as we were small and our structure was quite decentralized. He wanted to have some real ownership in the business he worked in. We could do that, too, as we set up separate corporations for each new program we started and we had already planned to offer a small ownership stake for the right manager.
There was one more thing he wanted, however, and it was clear it was a deal breaker for him. His current employer had very strict rules on vacations and holidays. He was a Viet Nam veteran and had wanted to go to Washington, DC each Veterans Day to remember his fallen comrades. His current employer’s rules did not make it possible to guarantee that, and he had missed the last two Veterans Day observances. So, in my offer I promised him that he would be guaranteed Veterans Day and one work day on either side of it off each and every year (they were counted as vacation days). That was all it took to convince him that we were the best place for him to work. He came to work for us taking a significant cut in base salary from what he had been making before.

Many from the Entrepreneurial Generation (those born between 1977 and 2002) are actively seeking out smaller entrepreneurial firms to work in. Work with your local universities to let their graduates and recent alumni know about your company and the opportunities you can offer. The best contact point would be the career services office in the college of business. Don’t be afraid to hire a new graduate. If your business is small, they should be able to handle scope of what you need right now and can continue to develop their skills as your company grows.
I wrote a post last summer with my list of specific suggestions on how to manage your staffing effectively as your business grows (click here to see that post).