One of the biggest mistakes most businesses make is this...

They hire or choose to work with the wrong people.

You see it happening all the time.

* There's the business owner that makes their hiring decision without fully knowing if the person they hired is qualified or not. (By the way, if you spend less than 4 hours interviewing a potential candidate for your business, you're making a big mistake. More about this in a little bit).

* There's the business owner that makes their hiring decision purely because they LIKE the person and get along with them very well. Sometimes, it can even be for reasons such as "Oh they're similar to me, they'll do well", or worse "I'll hire them because I want to help them".

* There's the business owner that makes their hiring decision because they are in deep 'need' for that talent and they just have a feeling that this is the best person for the position.

* There's also the business owner that makes their hiring decision purely based on price alone. Usually this type of person looks for the cheapest option available then goes with it.

All of these things I just mentioned above have ONE thing in common.

They are FLAWED methods for choosing talent.

Seriously.

Most people have even better ways of choosing a car, choosing a destination for a vacation, or even choosing the clothes they buy!

When the reality is... YOUR BUSINESS is one of the most important assets that you have right now.

So why leave your business success dependent on flawed methods of getting the right people?

That's one of the major reasons why businesses ultimately FAIL, or don't grow passed the current level they are in.

Not only do you waste an incredible amount of time and energy, when you work with the wrong people. You also throw away a lot of the opportunities you could have taken advantage of.

So here are some strategies you can use to make sure that you ONLY work with the right people:

1. Be brutal with your interview process. Screening is very important if you want to get the best people. Most top companies spend somewhere

between 2-5 hours interviewing people. If you want to do it yourself, you can check out the book Topgrading. If you don't want to do it yourself, just find a company that really screens all their staff.

2. References, past employers, and test. Here are 3 other 'musts' that you should be focusing on. First, you should ask for references, then call the references and ask about that person's performance and results. Second, call their last 3 employers and ask about that person's performance and results. Third, you have to test them out. Give them a small project and see how they perform.

3. Don't try to do it all by yourself. The process I explained to you could take somewhere between 5-8 hours in total. So if you're looking into 4 potential candidates, then you'll be screening, interviewing, and testing all week long. So instead of trying to do it all yourself, just work with a company that already does all of this for you, so you can be free to focus on what you do best.

So next time you work with somebody, make sure that they're qualified, skilled, and capable of getting the job done right.It will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.

Remember, if you work with the right people, you'll get things done faster, and with better quality.