How to Hire the best Staff to Build Your Fashion Team as Your Brand Expands

In the journey of every healthy fashion brand, there is always that point when the fashion brand is beginning to grow beyond the designer and there is the struggle to keep up with tasks!

This is a stage that every brand owner looks forward to; the period where you need and are able to hire help to keep your business moving. This is the moment when you become an employer of Labour and you feel like you are beginning to have an impact on the economy by providing jobs.

In hiring team members to make the work load lighter and make room for more possibilities, here are a few steps you should consider taking.

Decide On The Team Roles To Fill First.

You are not just looking to have a team, but one that will bring you to a point of consistent success, and also save you a lot of drama. In deciding the roles to fill look for the most urgent one and the ones that will benefit you the most in the long run. Remember that you are hiring the team to help you free up space, so that you can be more productive as a brand owner.

Except your business has grown to a certain extent (financially), you are certainly not looking to fill top management positions yet. If you are working with a small budget, you might be looking at hiring a virtual or administrative assistant who will come in as a contract worker.

In hiring you might need to confirm how long the person is willing to be on board to avoid having to change staff every now and then. Make sure you can trust them to ably represent the brand outside. It will also be a plus, if you ensure that they are proactive, and quick to learn.

When To Reach Out For Potential Team Members

Before hiring team members, it is important to ensure that there will be enough work for them to do that will make them feel connected to the company. You must also be able to financially afford hiring an assistant or studio hand at the time of making the decision to hire.

When you are beginning to wonder how you can grow your brand at a steady place on your own, or with the number of team mates you have, it just might be the right time to reach out for your potential Team Mate.

Finding Potential Employees

If we were able to read minds, hiring an employee would be very easy. This is because we would be aware of the work habits of people before employing them, but it is not so, therefore we need to be extra careful in hiring staff.

For starters, you should set up a recruitment team comprised of people with experience in handling interviews and sifting through personality and skills to get the right fit. If you cannot do that however, you can inform people you trust about your need for an employee.

Very importantly, appropriate graphics that will portray your brand well as well as communicate your staff needs should be made available. Create an anvenue for the prospective employee to know what is required of him or her before the role is applied for. This will ensure that the applications that come in are not too far from what you are looking for, and will reduce the time spent reviewing them.

Find out how much designers have used to start their fashion brands in this Mauvelli vox pop here

If you are working on a low budget you might want to look for an intern who is willing to work for a few months and eager to add an experience in the Fashion Industry to their CV.

Character is one of the most important things to look out for; zeal and qualification are equally important, however, an employee with great character is teachable and will be a huge plus to your team in the long run.

Summarily, here are a few important traits to look out for at the interview stage.

Long term potential: Look for someone who can become an asset to your brand.

Enthusiasm and Passion: Ensure that they are not joining the company solely for the paycheck. Hires who love what they do will most likely stick with the brand through thick and thin.

Putting skills into Action: Ensure that your potential hires have the skill set you need. You can place them on probationary employment for a period within which they are expected to prove themselves.

Find more insights in this Mauvelli exclusive with Atinuke Smith of Datina Designs

Team Player: Your potential team member should have a proper understanding of what it means to work in a team. Remember that team work makes the dream work and the weakest link in a team determines the strongest point. This is why you need to look out for a team player

Responsiveness: A person who thoughtfully responds when being addressed, greets politely and uses the ‘magic words’ (sorry, thank you, please etc.) easily will most likely display good character at work.

Ultimately, choosing a team should be done with a lot of thoughtfulness and carefulness, because the strength of your team determines your overall success.