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Getting the right staff

Deciding when to take on an employee is a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, if you increase your staffing levels, you might not be able to cover increased costs straight away. On the other hand, extra manpower could free you to spend more time on other activities, such as marketing or planning, which should, in the end, mean increased profits.

A useful rule of thumb for choosing the best time to increase your staff is to ask yourself if you can generate enough extra sales to cover the cost of taking on that extra employee. If you will not be able to increase your sales straight away, you could still employ someone; but, in this case, you will need to be able to keep your business going until you have been able ...

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