Difficult decisions: How to build, hire and cultivate your team

There are many hard decisions we have to make as founders. From team to marketing strategy, there’s always a tough choice to make. In this four‑part series, I’ll walk you through the mistakes – and successful strategies – I made surrounding some of my toughest decisions as a founder.  

I’m Jamika Martin, the founder of ROSEN Skincare and Flora Studios. I launched ROSEN in 2017 to transform the acne space for people of color. Through innovative, clean formulas, we transformed our customers’ skin and landed on the shelves of Target and Ulta Beauty. Now, I work with consumer‑packaged goods (CPG) brands through Flora Studios. At Flora Studios, we support personal care brands with product development and launch strategy services as well as low minimum order quantity (MOQ), U.S.‑based manufacturing. 

With that in mind, this series is meant for you – the founder of an emerging brand. You know, the brand fronted by a boot‑strapped founder who wears 10 hats. Should you find yourself in a more scaled and capital‑rich position, this series may be a little too scrappy for you. But if you’re like me, someone who started their business out of a tiny apartment – then this is for you. Ahead in this article, we dive into team: The who, what, when and how to hire.  

When to Hire 

More often than not, founders will need to hire before they’re actually able to. Whether it’s cash constraints or being able to find the right personnel, chances are you’ll need more support than you can afford early on. In this stage, it’s less of a question whether or not you should hire but preparing for when you can hire. 

First things first when you are thinking about when to make the first hire, pause to think about where your time is being spent. If you still have ample time to spend on growing the business, you may not need to hire. The primary purpose of adding headcount to your team should be to free up your time to take on more CEO‑level tasks or to find a level of expertise in a task that you don’t have. 

For many emerging, boot‑strapped brands, I recommend leaning towards the former. If you’re a small brand that wants to keep your costs as lean as possible, you should only be looking to bring folks on when you absolutely need to. And truthfully? If you still have lots of time to focus on the growth of the business (think marketing, partnerships, product development, retail and the like), then you’re in a great position to put cash back into tactics that will drive scale. 

However, if you find yourself spending the majority of your time in the business with to‑dos like customer service, spreadsheets and packing orders – that’s a clear sign that it’s time to hire. These are all things that are required to keep your business afloat, but they do not push it forward. Remember, your primary focus as leader is to make sure you are always steering the ship. 

Expertise vs. Execution 

Now that you’ve identified you’re ready to hire, it’s time to strategize about how to expand your team. There are a few strategies and avenues to consider, which make it all the more important to be diligent about your business’ position, what your skill set is and where the opportunity to expand your team lies. 

Early on with ROSEN and Flora, my hires were what I like to call “executioners.” These are easy‑to‑train, approachable staff that execute on tasks – employees that have incredible upward mobility but are affordable, flexible and scrappy as they work on behalf of your business.  

That said, you will eventually need to hire experts to support your brand. Again, this is where an honest evaluation of your current business stage and skill set is key. As you scale your brand, your weaknesses will become inherently clear (trust me on this one). Tons of time spent on time‑consuming tasks, repeated mistakes and poor strategy are just some examples that make it clear you may need an expert on the team. The truth is, we’re all building the plane as we’re flying it, but make sure to slow down and pay attention when you see an area of your business failing, and take the time to find an expert who can help. 

Who to hire 

When you’re deciding between an executioner or an expert, you may be unsure what departments to hire in. I like to recommend executioners in core areas of the business first, like customer service, marketing or product packing. One key question to ask yourself: Can the business sustain itself if you step away? Will emails be answered, orders shipped and social media posted? Taking the time to evaluate will enable you to honestly identify weak points. 

When it comes to experts, I always recommend hiring for scale first. Transparently, I spent a ton of time and capital on early hires around the operations of a business. Then one day, I realized I had neglected the brand itself. I forgot that I was the secret sauce to innovation, marketing and scale, and that I needed the expertise to support that. 

So, while I had impeccable lead times, inventory levels and projections, I didn’t have the sales to back it up. If I could go back and do it again, I’d make sure I hired experts specific to brand development, marketing and partnerships before I hired for the back end. I’d rather have a booming business that needs clean up than a squeaky‑clean back end with crickets on the front.  

When to outsource 

As an emerging brand, keeping your team lean is a privilege – think lower costs, with stronger flexibility on cash and commitments. Hiring and firing is a lengthy and personal process. Contractors, consultants or even an agency are a lot easier to integrate or cut ties with. You can renegotiate contracts, cut back hours or even change the scope of work. Try all this with an employee, and you’ll send them running (trust me, I’ve tried). Employees require a sense of stability not only with pay and hours, but with their responsibilities.  

For this, I love bringing on contracted expertise to the team. It keeps things much more flexible. However, if you need someone all in on what you’re building or touch points every day to ensure they can deliver, an employee may make more sense for you. 

When to fire 

You know the saying: Be slow to hire and quick to fire. Sometimes, as founders who are deeply ingrained in this work and our teams, that’s easier said than done. Is it possible not to take things personally if an employee doesn’t perform as expected? Or worse: How can you avoid feeling wrecked with guilt if you have to let someone go? 

I get it. But it’s important to know that keeping an employee past their abilities or giving them too many chances can slowly eat away at your company. Other employees may feel it unfair or begin questioning the level of effort they need to put in, partnership relationships can be tainted and expensive mistakes can be made. It’s not even about the possible impact on company culture, but the fact that you only have so many dollars to spend, and spending thousands on people who don’t push the business forward will drive you down. 

My recommendation? Keep records of issues or mistakes employees make and how often you have to reach out to them for an issue. Communicate early and clearly that expectations aren’t being met. Let troubled employees know it’s not personal, but if these tasks can’t be completed to standard, there’s no other role for them at the company. Make sure you’re giving folks a chance to step up. At the very least, if they miss expectations, it won’t be a huge shock if you have to let them go. 

Hiring a team isn’t without its challenges but maintaining the right team – and generating results is even harder. So, remember: Stay lean, find experts to prevent you from getting in your own way and be flexible. 

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About the author

Jamika is a serial entrepreneur whose journey started with ROSEN Skincare, an acne care line with a purpose of making women of color feel confident in their own skin. After bootstrapping ROSEN straight out of college, Jamika scaled ROSEN to a 7‑figure business, raised $2M in seed capital and secured retail partnerships with brands like Target and Ulta Beauty. Since growing ROSEN, Jamika has launched Flora Studios to support emerging CPG founders through product development, low MOQ manufacturing and launch strategy. She's passionate about ways to make your brand stand out digitally and on shelf, all while staying scrappy.