Hiring someone to do this? And miss seeing you every Friday? Nah, let’s get these events going!

Hey! Andres here,

Welcome to another week of the networking desk!

This week, I want to talk about my hiring process with Upwork, my experiences, and more. Maybe it will help some of you out there delegate a few repetitive tasks!

🌟 Don’t forget to share your networking wins (or business wins and tips) to be featured next time!

Here’s what we got this week:

• 📎 How I hire on Upwork

• Local Events!

Alright, let’s do this.

“Lean forward moment” of the week - 📎 Upwork Hiring

This week’s newsletter was triggered by a question, which my brother asked me yesterday.

“Have you fired someone? And is it easy?”

Now, although I do believe in the mentality “Hire fast fire fast”, there is more to it than just “getting rid of people”. I told him that yes, I have, and quite a bit at this point.

“Is it easy?” I said, “well, no.” but I think it was the best for both of us.

I have never fired someone without them understanding why I did it. It might be that work slowed down and I might use them again in the future. Maybe we just didn’t achieve the results we wanted.

Contractors, or full-time hires, to me that is, are relationships and (like any other) need to be treated with respect. So, although not easy if the work doesn't serve the business or the hired person then it's ok to let go, always in good terms where both understand the situation.

Now, let’s talk about how I make the decision of “hiring quickly” in the first place.

#1 Attitude - I always ask myself, “Would they be friends with the rest of the team?”

If I had to say what my number one ability is, that would be recognizing people’s intentions, and bringing up their true selves. I like to see beyond frown, smiles, anger, or whatever it might be, and connect in a deeper level.

This helps me quickly evaluate if it would be good to work with this person, if they don’t like me, or would not be a good fit for the team (even if they are just contractors) then I rather stop right there and then.

#2 Camera always on - So far, and hey I could be wrong but, after… over 10 hires every person who did not turn their camera on, are not a good fit. Not sure why this is the case, but for some reason it doesn’t fail me, haha.

#3 Finding out if they know what they are talking about - now, how do you do this? A test? Work proof? Well yeah those work but my favorite is….

Throw a topic out where people in that field have inner jokes, then see if they have the expected reaction, this shows expertise.

Ex. an ongoing gag of WordPress or a developer joke tends to work well for me, if they laugh and jump on the joke, then I know they are versed on their field, the more niche the better.

This is why I always recommend knowing a good bit of what you are hiring for. If you don't then have someone who knows run the interview for you (at least for the technical aspect) even if you have to pay them, it will be worth it.

Do you have any tips? I’d love to hear them!

💻 Know a nonprofit leader?

Hey! In case you didn’t know, I make websites and help non-profits to stay top of mind to create more revenue.

Nonprofits can get $120k per year on ads, which can open new opportunities for recurring donations AND more grant money. Connect us! I do free reviews and evaluation of next steps for the grant.

OR JUST RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL!

🗓️ Now, the events…

Local shop of the week - Duck Ink Figurine Painting & Boba

Not an ad – just a cool spot you can visit

OK, hear me out. This place is great.

Not ONLY, do you get to paint cool stuff (which is already great for a long coffee with someone you have not chatted with in a while)

BUT

You also get amazing drink. I tried the Matcha Taro tea, and it was so good!

How was today’s newsletter?

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Thank you for reading! Quick thing before I go:

1. If you are new or would like to read older posts, check out this page. There is a backlog of previous weeks of “The Networking Desk”

2. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Be sure to share it with them! 📩 (just copy the link or forward this email) I will keep putting out great newsletters for them and for you. That’s a promise.

See you next week.

- Andres Inciarte