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Sarah Brooks

Sarah Brooks is a freelance writer living in Charlotte, NC. She writes on a variety of topics including small businesses, careers and personal finance.

Sarah Brooks has written 27 articles for SB Informer.
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Finding the Best Resumes is No Small Business

Sarah Brooks

July 16, 2015


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There are a lot of factors that go into running a small business outside of gaining customers and selling your product.

Business owners are also in charge of scouting and hiring new employees. Employees can either make or break your company.

If you have a good, stable staff working for you, your business will reap the benefits. If, on the other hand, your staff is flaky and not passionate about the job, your business will suffer.

 

Know the Hiring Process

The first step in hiring new employees is posting a job ad on a site like Craigslist or CareerBuilder.

You can also ask current employees for referrals or post flyers locally in your area. Once you're job opening has received hits, it's time to sort through the resumes.

 

Sorting Through the Field

Imagine you run a cosmetology business.

You are looking to hire four more cosmetologists for your studio. You post a job ad and receive hundreds of applications, both digitally and in person.

The article "How to prepare your resume for a cosmetology career" provides tips on creating a resume in this specific field. You're now left with hundreds of resumes that all look similar.

Here are tips on how to sort through resumes to find the best candidates:

Know what you're looking for - The first thing you'll want to look for is experience. Do you want to hire people with X years of experience or are you looking to choose entry-level employees? People with experience will often come with a higher salary, but they also bring more to the table. Determine what you want and quickly sort through the resumes once to weed out candidates who don't qualify.

Skim the resumes - A good resume will get your attention. There is no need to read every single resume word-for-word. Instead, briefly look at the candidates experience, education and extracurricular activities. Their style of writing and even the format of the resume will tell you a lot about the candidate. If a resume catches your eye, call that person in for an interview.

Set aside time each day to sort - The best way to be productive when handling resumes is to set aside a specific block of time each day to look through them. Setting aside time is a way to guarantee that it will get done. Give yourself at least one hour each day until you have a handful of candidates you want to interview.

Don't settle - If none of the resumes are catching your eye or if no one impressed you on the interview, don't settle. It's better to continue posting job ads until the right person comes along than hire someone just because you need to. As stated above, hiring the right people can make or break your company. Don't settle for anyone less than exactly what you're looking for. It might mean you need to pay them more, but if they're an asset to your company it will be worth it.


                   



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