Mike Andes built a $50M business by hiring in three tiers: entry-level culture fits, experienced industry people, and seasoned operators who've solved your problems before. If you can't afford the top tier, he says intensive training of existing staff is non-negotiable.
The only thing separating you from where you're at today and where you want to be is skills. And in order to gain those skills, you will have to put in the reps. Now, when it comes to finding talent, I've always looked at it like this. 101 is culture, 201 is experience, 301 is been there, done that. In other words, entry level. As long as someone is a cultural fit, that's like table stakes. You gotta have a good person you can trust, etc. Now you're gonna have to pay a little bit more though. If you want to have someone has experience in the industry, they have skills, they've already been inside this industry, have experience, that's 201. Now you're going to have to pay a lot for someone that's 301. Been there, done that. The problems that you have in the business, they've already solved. They've done it themselves in the past. Now if you can't afford to pay someone, acquire talent at that 301 level, they've already solved the problems that you have. Now you will need to train your team religiously.
