The Hire That Wasn't the Real Problem

In 1998 the Asian financial crisis hit our business hard.

We desperately needed a salesperson. We were already down as my wife was on maternity leave, expecting our first child.

So what did we do?

We hired someone through a recruiter my dad knew.

His dad and my dad were friends.

Old-school Italian loyalty — you look after your own. I went along with it. I trusted my dad's judgement.

But looking back, the bigger problem wasn't the person we hired. It was the situation and why we were hiring.

We were too afraid to expand the business properly.

My parents would often talk about the pitfalls of taking on big jobs that involved supply, and fix installation for builders — higher costs, more risk and more accountability.

So we convinced ourselves we were too small.

Where was the money going to come from?

How could we afford the wages?

We convinced ourselves that investing in the right people wasn't for businesses like ours.

We psyched ourselves out before we even tried.

It was a mindset issue.

And there were other warning signs.

We weren't investing in enough stock.

The showroom wasn't appealing enough for builder clients.

And if I'm honest, we never really had a proper business plan or strategy.

Here's the thing:

We were reacting.

Not leading.

Unsurprisingly, the first person didn't work out.

To the recruiter's credit, he replaced them for free.

There was honour in that.

But the real lesson stayed with me:Sometimes the wrong hire isn't the problem.

The problem is hiring before you've worked out what direction your business is going in.