Thoughts on hiring experienced workers ($$$), or newbies ($) for a new/small business

Sometimes experienced people come with bad habits. And those can be almost impossible to break sometimes.

New people are fresh and like a sponge, you can mold them they way you want.

I think a third option would be someone who has industry knowledge but not really experience being put in a position to be in charge, but knows he/she can do it. Someone who is looking to step up. I think that is where you'll find the best candidate.

Write down a list of clear expectations that you would have for and “experience Worker“ then build a review system that allows you to coach and track an unexperienced workers progress to this position if you’re able to hire someone at the lower level and train them to that level, then you can build something scalable and duplicatable

It depends on the industry. My industry, I've had SOME luck with newbies but more luck finding experienced people. Thing with the experienced people, you need to be crystal clear on what you're looking for, and what are deal breakers. You can't be afraid to fire them quickly. Even if it's too quick. Could they have worked out? Maybe. But if they are setting off red flags now, you'll get more out of it personally to let them go and grow from the experience than keep someone around too long when you had the thought they wouldn't work out from the start. For the experienced guys, we pay a little more but I tell them it comes with responsibility. If they are doing X, Y, and Z early on, I'm going to let them go. I'll give them a warning and remind them of the conversation we had initially then that's it. 

Something like lawn care i feel like could be trained a lot easier than tiling a shower. Lower risk and probably lower cost if it get's messed up. That's just my perception. If you're able and have training systems/ experienced people to help mentor, I feel like newbies is the way to go. 

In almost 20 years of lawn care maintenance I have trained, and i have worked with other well experienced workers. With anyone new ive trained over the years, I start with communication, putting a tool in their hands and then shaping their movements with quality, and adding speed later. With experienced workers, its much easier to make simple requests as a leader, i.e. "Do me a favor and raise your trimmer a bit so you dont burn the grass." 

It truly depends on the scale of the project and what your looking to get out of them. I think giving the newbies a shot is always a good route so you can mold them to fit your business operationally - especially if you have the people or things in place to provide them with the appropriate mold. If not then definitely get experience over everything so that you can potentially learn from them or have them help shape your business. 

I'd challenge the idea that this is an experienced vs. newbie decision when it's really a trust and systems decision.

If your goal is to get yourself out of the field, I'd lean toward hiring for reliability, professionalism, and willingness to learn over pure technical knowledge. Skills can be taught much easier than accountability and attitude. I've hired both experienced people and complete beginners. Some of my best hires came in with zero industry experience, and some experienced hires brought bad habits or struggled to adapt to our systems.

What would someone need to know and do consistently for you to trust them on a site without you?

If that answer only exists in your head right now, I'd focus on documenting and training around those expectations first. Otherwise, even an experienced hire may not perform the way you want.

Also, I'd be careful about assuming experienced employees are more likely to leave and start their own business. In my experience, people leave for a variety of reasons, and ownership is a completely different skill set than doing the work itself. If your business is still small, I'd probably hire for character and coachability, build strong systems, and create a repeatable training process. That's what gives you leverage as you grow.