20 Minute Hire

For owners with a seat to fill

Make your next hire your last bad one.

A resume, one good conversation and your gut. That's a coin flip, and most owners have lost it at least once. This short book gives you the nine steps I use instead, so you know before you make the offer, not in month three.

Get the book: $5

Instant download. PDF and EPUB, with a copy to your email.

You knew by week two.

The seat had been open too long. You posted something, took a few calls and hired the best of the people you met. Payroll doesn't wait, and you couldn't do that job for one more month.

Then, somewhere around week two, you started to know. You gave it another month. Your best person quietly covered for them. And you kept them, because letting them go meant starting the whole thing over.

That isn't a character flaw. You made the call the only way anyone ever showed you. Nobody ever handed you the how.

The real bill isn't the salary. It's the months you spend back in the weeds, doing the job yourself.

The right hire is decided before the interview starts.

Nine steps in three parts. Each chapter ends with a 15-minute step for the seat you need to fill.

Part 1

Attract

  1. 1Write the seat: what it gets paid for, with a number on each result.
  2. 2Describe the person: the skills they bring, how they think and what they care about.
  3. 3Write a post that pulls the right people in and pushes the wrong ones away.

Part 2

Select

  1. 4Screen in 15 minutes and check they can actually do the work.
  2. 5Ask everyone the same questions and listen like an investigator.
  3. 6Compare each candidate to the job, never to each other. Then check references.

Part 3

Launch

  1. 7Plan day one and the first week.
  2. 8Set check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days.
  3. 9Give feedback early, and know what to do if it is the wrong person.

By the end of the book, you have

  • A scorecard for the seat: what it gets paid for, with a number you can count.
  • A picture of the person who can deliver it, checked by track record, not potential.
  • A job post that does the filtering for you.
  • The same questions for every candidate, and a sheet to score them against the job.
  • A plan for day one, the first week and the first 90 days.
  • A calm way out if it turns out to be the wrong person.
Get the book: $5

Instant download. PDF and EPUB, with a copy to your email.

Why listen to me

For years I worked with Paper Moon, Peter and Lisa Moon's painting company. We kept hiring people who talked a big game in the interview and couldn't do the work. So we built a room where candidates prepped and painted a wall before anyone got hired. We stopped trusting the interview and started watching people do the work.

I've spent seventeen years since then building hiring systems for small business owners, including HVAC, plumbing, restoration and painting companies, and I host a leadership podcast where I've picked apart the hire that went wrong with owner after owner. It's almost always the same story. This book is the fix, in plain words.

Max Kozlovsky

Questions

Who is this for?

Owners of small businesses, usually 5 to 50 people, who have a seat to fill now or soon. It was written with trades and service companies in mind, and it works for any seat you hire for.

How long does it take to read?

About an hour. Each chapter ends with a 15-minute step for the seat in front of you. Read it in one sitting and you finish with the whole hire written down.

What format is it?

An ebook, PDF and EPUB. It downloads right after you pay and a copy goes to your email.

I have hired plenty of people. Is this too basic?

If your last few hires all worked out, you may not need it. If you have kept someone too long, or hired the best of the five you met and regretted it, this is the how nobody gave you.

Can't I just find interview questions online?

You can. Questions are step 5 of 9. Most bad hires are decided before step 5, when nobody wrote down what the seat gets paid for.

Stop flipping the coin.

One bad hire puts you back in the weeds for months. This book is $5.

Pick the seat. Read the book tonight. Have the whole hire written down before you post the job.

Get the book: $5

Instant download. PDF and EPUB, with a copy to your email.