5 Reasons Great People Want to Work for Your Small Business

By Jill Feilmeier on November 2, 2011 in Just for Kicks

Tips for Attracting World-Class Employees to Early Stage Companies

2 male businessmen communicating

As a small business, it is a tough sell to convince your in-laws that you have a legitimate job, but how are you going to convince world-class talent to leave a comfortable desk job for the unknown.

Here are five reasons top-tier talent will want to work for your small business:

Flexibility – your hours may not be 9 to 5, consider giving your employees the option of working from home, flexible work hours and days. This flexibility gives them more opportunity to get their work done on their time, while promoting work-life balance.
Ownership – when employees feel that they have purpose, they will have higher satisfaction in their work and produce more. While you may not want to give up the whole business, there are options for rewarding employees for their initiative and loyalty by offering ownership especially for employees that are with you from the start.
Benefits – whether it is medical or dental, there are many options for individuals and small employers. You can look at voluntary plans where you administer the plans and the employee pays 100% of the premium; small business plans may be available for as little as two employees or look at offering your employees an individual insurance policy. Talk to a local insurance agent, check out insurance web portals such as www.ehealthinsurance.com or go directly to the insurance carrier.
Title – while you may not be able to offer employees a hefty salary, you can offer distinctive and fancy titles like chief marketing officer, vice president of operations or get creative with titles like “big cheese” and “second-in-command.”
Experience – your start-up can offer your CTO a variety of experiences so they don’t have to specialize in just one area. The duties of the CTO may include setting up the office computers, but the experience they will get from the bottom-up doesn’t compare.

Do you have other reasons why start-ups and small businesses are better than large companies? Let us know your thoughts.