At Strategic Profits, we teach people how to grow their businesses online with courses, memberships, ebooks, whitepapers, and coaching.
In other words…
We sell information.
And as a result, there’s one asset that’s more critical to our success than anything else.
It’s not the website.
…My gigabit Internet connection.
…Or even our products.
Sure those are important. And it would be pretty darn hard to succeed without them.
But even more critical are the components that create those assets, leverage them, and turn them into profits.
I’m talking about people.
They’re the most valuable part of our business.
But here’s the problem…
Hiring the right people is waaaayyy more difficult than it looks.
“Hire slow, fire fast,” the maxim goes.
And it’s 1,000% true.
But you also have to consider the order that you fill positions.
Is it the right time to hire a copywriter? An executive assistant? A media buyer?
It all depends.
So to help me make these decisions, I look to a VERY different business for advice:
The National Football League.
Because just like my business, a football team is only as good as its staff.
It’s the ultimate people business.
And what you’ll notice about championship-caliber organizations that seemingly go to the playoffs every year, is that they have a very similar process for building their teams.
Usually they follow these 2 rules:
RULE #1: Build Through The Draft
Great organizations are very selective about spending big money on free agent players who’re already established. Instead, their top players are often drafted straight out of college and groomed within the organization.
Not only does this allow the team to save money with rookie contracts, but their players start as blank slates that can be easily molded, taught their system, and indoctrinated into the culture of the organization.
RULE #2: Draft The Best Player Available
The other thing that top football teams do when building through the draft, is that they don’t draft players according to their needs. Instead, they draft the best player available.
So even if they’re stacked at wide receiver, they’ll still draft another one if that’s the best player on the board when it’s time to make their pick.
Now here’s what these two approaches look like when hiring at an info business…
Take Agora for example.
For many years, they’ve done these 2 things really well with copywriters:
- The best businesses within Agora built their copy teams by training rookie writers with potential, not by hiring top-tier freelancers (they do that on occasion, but most Agora copywriters start in-house).
- If a talented Agora copywriter decided to leave their company, the competing Agora businesses would quickly make them an offer — even if their copy team was already loaded with rockstars.
Point being…
Great talent is hard to retain.
But it’s even harder to find.
So if you can groom talent in-house, you’ve got a strong competitive advantage.
And if you’ve found someone who’s excellent at their job and understands your business, do whatever it takes to keep them.
They’re your #1 asset.
Your pen pal,
Matt Rizvi