Knowing when to scale

Knowing when to scale up your team of employees can be a hard decision to make. If you think that now might be the right time to grow your business and hire more employees, ask yourself these seven questions:

1. When was the last time you had to ask a client to extend a deadline?
   Missing client deadlines can be damaging to your business. Look back at the last few times you had to delay a deadline, what was the reason? Was it down to lack of skill, so a task took longer? A lack of time, as you had too many projects?
   
2. Have your overtime costs rapidly increased?  
   Are employees coming in early, skipping lunches and working longer hours to complete their work? A productive workforce is a happy workforce. If you need your team members need to work out of hours on a regular basis this can foster discontent.  Are the reasons for the overtime valid?
   
3. Are employees cancelling their vacation?
   Don’t lose sight of the need for individuals to have their own work/life balance. If employees are repeatedly delaying or cancelling paid time off it is a clear sign that, although you have a dedicated staff, they need more help.
   
4. Are you relying on external vendors and contractors?
   Using contractors and vendors to cover extra work as your business grows, can be a great stop gap, but they can also be costly. Analyze if the amount of money you are paying a contractor could be used to employ a full time staff member at the same skill level or higher.