One of the most difficult areas in any business is successful hiring. Whether you’re hiring your first employee or you’ve been hiring employees for years, you want to remember to hire first for how the person will fit with the team and second for how experienced or skilled they are.

You know that it can be easy to be dazzled by someone with an extensive track record and tons of experience in the area you need help with. Likewise, someone who has little or no experience may seem like a poor choice.

As many of my clients would tell you from past experience, however, if the skilled person doesn’t fit well with the team and lacks the qualities that you value (which might include a collaborative approach, willingness to take on other tasks and areas of responsibilities, interest in learning and growing, congenial, good communicator, high integrity, etc.) you’ll regret your decision and be trying to gather your courage to fire him or her before long.

Let’s face it – it’s no fun firing someone. In fact, it’s a task many entrepreneurs procrastinate about, sometimes taking months or even years to act on. Sometimes they never act and wait until the employee finally quits on their own.

Most of the time, you will actually be helping the person you fire. If they weren’t a good fit, they will be happier in a job where they can truly thrive. If they had a bad attitude or bad work habits, they’ll probably benefit from a wake up call.

If a person has a great work ethic, on the other hand, along with a pleasant and capable personality and is willing to learn, you can end up with a gem of an employee. One of my clients hired such a young woman two years ago whose qualities were a great fit, but her experience was lacking. After a year of learning the ropes, the new employee was performing very well and my client couldn’t be happier.

A subcategory of hiring errors is hiring friends. Another client hired a good friend of his to be the office receptionist/manager for his busy pediatric practice. It’s a demanding job requiring lots of people skills to schedule, handle emergencies, deal with sick babies and their stressed parents, not to mention the computer work.

Unfortunately, this employee/friend has quite a short fuse, a hot temper which has resulted in numerous occasions where she’s been a bit rude to patients. Although my client has told the employee that this is unacceptable, she has not been able to adjust her behavior and my client has not had the guts to fire her. Now, after TEN YEARS of putting up with this, the not-so-good employee is finally leaving of her own accord. (I wish my client had been using my small business consulting services a lot sooner; he would have put an end to that silliness.)

I’ve heard many tales over the years from clients who have hired friends, only to regret it when the time came that they had to act like the boss they indeed were. I know there are exceptions to this rule, but I recommend not chancing it.

Despite the tools and skills available to improve one’s hiring track record, it remains one of the most difficult of skills. It’s impossible to have every hire work out; that’s why having the courage to let someone go if they are not working out is vitally important.

As a small business owner, you can’t afford unproductive, uncooperative employees. Everybody matters. To help your business reach its full potential, be smart in your hiring.