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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
One of the most common sentences I hear from growing business owners is, \u201cWe need to hire someone.\u201d Sometimes they\u2019re right. But often what they really mean is that something isn\u2019t getting done. Sales leads aren\u2019t being followed up. Marketing has become inconsistent. Customer service is overwhelmed. Or the founder is spending 10 hours a week doing work they know they shouldn\u2019t be doing.<\/p>\n
For decades, our solution to those problems has been remarkably consistent. Create a job, bundle together a collection of responsibilities, write a job description, decide on a salary and find somebody willing to perform those tasks for roughly 40 hours a week.<\/p>\n
That model isn\u2019t disappearing. But AI, automation, fractional executives, freelancers, outsourced partners and global specialists give entrepreneurs far more options than we had even a few years ago. So before you create another job, ask a different question: What outcome are we actually trying to buy?<\/strong><\/p>\n I recently went through this exercise in one of my own businesses. We wanted to increase the number of qualified sales opportunities we were generating, and the obvious answer seemed to be hiring more business development people.<\/p>\n But \u201chire another salesperson\u201d wasn\u2019t really the outcome we needed. We wanted a consistent pipeline of qualified conversations with the right potential customers.<\/p>\n Once we defined it that way, we started breaking apart the work required to produce those conversations. Someone had to identify target companies, research them, find the right decision-makers, develop messaging, conduct outreach, follow up, qualify responses and eventually have a meaningful conversation with the prospect.<\/p>\n Previously, we might have bundled most of that into one person\u2019s job. Instead, we started separating the capabilities.<\/p>\n We use dedicated research support to identify and investigate prospects. Technology helps us find and organize contact information. AI can assist with research and developing personalized outreach, while automation can take some of the repetitive work out of the process. Our business development people can then spend more of their time on the work where people add the most value: building relationships, understanding what a prospect actually needs and moving a genuine opportunity forward.<\/p>\n We still need talented salespeople. In fact, getting the right people into those roles becomes even more important.<\/p>\n But we\u2019re no longer hiring them to do everything associated with \u201cbusiness development.\u201d We\u2019re designing a system around the outcome we want and then deciding where human capability creates the greatest return. That\u2019s a very different way to think about hiring.<\/p>\n This requires us to think about hiring in a different order. Start with the outcome<\/strong>. What needs to be different after you spend the money? Then identify the work<\/strong> required to produce that outcome. Only after you\u2019ve broken down the work should you identify the capabilities<\/strong> needed to perform it. That\u2019s where hiring decisions become much more interesting.<\/p>\n Some capabilities may require a full-time employee because the work is continuous, strategically important and benefits from deep knowledge of your business. Others may require an expert for only five hours a month. Some can be outsourced to a company that performs that function every day, while repetitive work may be automated, and increasingly, some work can be performed or assisted by AI.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t about replacing employees with technology. It\u2019s about stopping ourselves from assuming that every capability gap requires another person on the payroll.<\/p>\n The World Economic Forum\u2019s Future of Jobs Report 2025<\/a> illustrates why that distinction matters. Its survey of more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers found that 73% expect to accelerate process and task automation, while 63% plan to augment their workforce with new technologies. At the same time, 70% expect to hire people with emerging skills.<\/p>\n Businesses aren\u2019t choosing between people and technology. They\u2019re redesigning the combination.<\/p>\n This shift may be even more important for entrepreneurs because smaller businesses have always faced a capability problem. A large company might employ a Chief Marketing Officer, graphic designer, financial analyst, cybersecurity specialist, HR director and software developer. A 20-person company probably can\u2019t. But increasingly, it doesn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\nStart with the outcome, not the person<\/h2>\n
Break the job apart before you fill it<\/h2>\n
Small businesses have more options than they used to<\/h2>\n