Horse Business Q and A: Transitionsing from a One-Person Show to Having Employees

Q: I own and run a one-woman lesson and training barn and I'm looking to bring on a new barn manager/secretary. What suggestions do you have for transitioning clients from dealing with myself (for scheduling, billing, etc.) to this new person? - Denise

A: I love this question, because it's complex. Ultimately, your clients should benefit from you hire but they might be a little uncomfortable at first. This is normal when there are changes in personnel or procedures. Here are three steps to make the process smoother and circumvent potential issues from the start.

Step 1

Step one is to speak with your customers in advance and learn if they have any concerns about this shift. This needs to be a fact-finding (or emotion finding) mission where you are just listening to their feedback. You might find out that they are fine with it (or even happy that you'll be able to focus more on the horse side of the business) and give you positive feedback, or they might have real concerns about bringing in someone new. You'll want to listen to those concerns and take them into consideration during your hiring process as well as when you introduce your new employee to your customers.

Step 2

The second part is when you do hire someone for this role, be sure to introduce her personally to each of your clients and explain what her roles will be at your barn. This personal introduction and clear statement of your expectations will help your customers feel more comfortable with your new employee (as opposed to making their own introductions) and they will be clear on what parts of the business she will be handling.

Step 3

Third, I always made it a rule that if there were ever any people problems or if an employee thought a customer was even remotely unsatisfied, they were to bring it to me immediately.  The purpose of this was to provide support and clarify boundaries - not to find fault or assign blame.  If you want the people part of your business to run smoothly, it is essential to be someone that people can bring their challenges to.  If you are not open to hearing those things, you'll push that type of communication away. This usually results in clients talking amongst themselves or to the employee who will listen and tends to escalate problems and harm relationships - sometimes beyond repair. Whereas, when clients and employees feel safer bringing challenges to you (the person who can actually resolve them) your barn community will be far healthier and happier. 

To Ensure Success

Finally, when you make this transition, you will initially need to increase your frequency of checking in with everybody (both your employee and your customers)  to make sure things are going smoothly. I know this sounds a little counter intuitive, after all you are hiring this person to take some of the workload off you, but it will help the process go much more smoothly.  And, as time goes on, you will be able to reduce the amount of time you spend checking in because you will have set yourself, your new employee and your customers up for a successful transition.  

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