You’ve Exhausted Your Friendship Group. Now What?
Topic: People
When you are starting a business, hiring often begins with the people you already know. A former colleague joins, someone recommends someone they worked with a few years ago, an investor knows someone great, or you put the word out to your network and suddenly you have your next employee.And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, it makes a lot of sense. There is already some trust there, people have a better idea of what they are walking into and, particularly when you are moving quickly, it can be a really effective way to build those first few hires.But eventually you are going to exhaust your friendship group.You need a skill set that nobody in your network has. You have asked everyone you know and the same names keep coming up. Or the business has simply grown to the point where the people you know are no longer giving you access to the people you need.This is where recruitment starts to get a bit harder, because your network might have got you this far, but your network is not the market.Once you start trying to attract people outside that immediate circle, the conversation changes. Someone who knows you, has worked with you before or has been referred by a mutual connection already has some trust in the business. Someone sitting outside that circle doesn't.They might be sitting in a good role at an established company, earning decent money with a clear career path and a brand on their CV that everyone recognises. Then your business appears in their inbox.Whether we like it or not, they may look at it and think: risky.Will this business still be around in a few years? What are the founders actually like to work with? Is the funding solid? Is this role really what they're telling me it is? What happens to my career if it doesn't work out?These aren't bad questions. They are actually pretty reasonable ones.I don't think the answer is to try to convince candidates there is absolutely no risk in joining a growing business. There probably is. The better question is: what makes your opportunity worth taking that risk?Because this is also where smaller and growing businesses can have a massive advantage.Articulate what's great about your businessYou might be able to offer someone direct access to the founders and leadership team. They might actually get to make decisions rather than putting together a PowerPoint presentation so a decision can be made six meetings later. They might get to build something from scratch, have much broader scope or genuinely influence what the company looks like in two or three years.That's exciting to the right person.But you have to be able to explain it.“Great culture”, “exciting opportunity” and “fast-growing business” aren't really telling a candidate anything. What are they actually going to do? What can they own? What can they change? Why are you hiring them now? What has already been built and what is still a complete work in progress?I would tell them about the messy bits too.I've spent 20 years in recruitment and I don't think good candidates expect every opportunity to be perfect. They do, however, want to understand what they're walking into.Good candidates don't need a perfect story. They need a credible one.The other trap I see is assuming that once your personal network stops producing people, the next step is simply putting a job ad online and waiting.Sometimes that works. Sometimes you'll get an absolute superstar through an ad.But the person you really want might not be looking at job ads at all. They could be reasonably happy where they are. They don't know your company exists and they've certainly never considered working for you.That's when recruitment starts becoming much more about searching rather than advertising.Who actually has the experience you need? Where are those people working now? Are there other industries you haven't considered? Is there someone sitting one step below the level you're hiring for who is ready for a bigger opportunity?And probably the most important question: why would they leave what they already have to join you?If you can't answer that, it's going to be pretty hard for a recruiter, hiring manager or founder to convince them.It is also why a LinkedIn message saying, “I've got an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing company” isn't necessarily going to get you very far. Particularly when that person probably has another five messages in their inbox saying almost exactly the same thing.Going beyond your own network also gives you something else that I think is incredibly valuable. You start meeting people you would never have found through your existing circle.Different industries, different backgrounds, different experiences and completely different ways of thinking. If every hire comes from the same founders, investors, former colleagues and friendship groups, it is pretty easy to keep fishing in the same talent pool without even realising you're doing it.There is not a magic employee number when your current network stops providing accessThere isn't a magic employee number where this changes either. It might happen when you have 10 employees. It might happen when you have 50.I think there is a much simpler question to ask:Are the people we know still giving us access to the people we need?If the answer is no, don't just keep asking the same network louder.Work out what makes your business genuinely worth joining. Get really clear about the people you need, broaden where you are looking and then go and find them.Your friendship group might have helped you build the first version of your team.The next version might be full of people you haven't met yet.