Britain is home to a wealth of innovative female startups, but most of them will tell you it takes the right team of people to turn a new venture into a lucrative business.

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to grow your business by hiring new talent, these insights from female-led UK-based startups can help you source new employees and strengthen your business.

‘Right Now’ Growth Is Deceptive

Lark Ismail, founder of Lark’s Virtual Solutions, a virtual assistant and Internet marketing business, dedicated to finding online marketing solutions to meet their client’s needs talks finding talent and setting standards.

How important is finding the right talent?

We’re a small business that builds close relationships with clients, so it is crucial that we have a reliable team that we can trust to interact with clients directly. I also need to be able to count on them to make decisions and produce great work. I don’t have the desire or time to micromanage every little detail.

What creative ways do you use to attract new talent?

We usually offer a paid trial period to get to know the person and see if they will be a good fit. We’ve always found greater success through referrals than listing the position on a general job board. Once you’re working with someone who is great, they are usually a good judge of who can really add something to the business and maintain the same standards.

What advice do you have for startups looking to grow their team?

It’s really important to plan your growth carefully, so that you never over exhaust your resources. People often take an approach where “right now” is always a great time to grow, but this isn’t always the case.

You can run into a situation that you haven’t prepared for and now you need help quick! This is always difficult because it means you don’t have the time to be as picky and find the best choice. Remember that it can take a while to find the right person for the role.

Passion Can’t Be Taught

Helen Moulinos, Co-founder of Space 1a Designs – a British-made sustainable home and interior accessories company she created with her husband Daniel – talks passion and brand trust.

How important is finding the right talent?

As an independent design business we operate with a small team who are paramount to our success. We need to hire and retain the best talent as we are placing trust in them to represent the brand and put the reputation and growth of the company in their hands.

What creative ways do you use to attract new talent?

We cultivate a diverse and exciting work environment. It’s a learning curve for us all and a great opportunity to develop and grow on the job. One day you are laying down artwork for a new fabric design, on the phone with clients half a world away and the next you are writing a marketing campaign for new wallpaper and talking to your developers about new trade site functionality.

What advice do you have for startups looking to grow their team?

Start slowly. Take time to find the right people. Hire smart people who know their own minds and show integrity. Technical skills can be taught, passion can’t. You want to work with people who love what they do as much as you and will put across their opinions when it counts and show excellent problem solving skills. In my line of business no one gives you a training manual – you need to figure out new tasks every day.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Ian Butterworth is the Director and Senior Consultant at Lucas Blake. Lucas Blake specializes in the recruitment of Sales Professionals within the Information Technology and Telecommunications sectors throughout the UK and Europe. Connect with @lucasblakeltd on Twitter.

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