Hiring your first team member is one of the biggest turning points in your business. Done well, it multiplies your capacity and finally frees you from having to be at every single event. Done badly, it can create more stress than it removes.
These six principles will help you build a team you can trust with your brand, and your clients.
- Get very clear on what you actually need. Someone to help at events is too vague. Clarity sounds more like: a confident, reliable event attendant who can set up the booth in 45 minutes, engage warmly with guests of all ages, and handle basic technical issues. Write a short role description that covers responsibilities like setup, guest interaction, troubleshooting, and pack-down; hours and typical working times such as evenings and weekends; and skills and personality traits like being friendly, calm under pressure, and tech-comfortable. This clarity makes it much easier to spot the right person when they appear.
- Make your brand standards non-negotiable. At any event you don't attend, your team member is your business. They need to know exactly what doing a great job looks like to you. Create a simple brand standards document that covers dress code and overall appearance, how to greet clients and guests, how to handle difficult situations or complaints, and how to communicate with venue staff and other vendors. This doesn't have to be long, but it should be crystal clear.
- Build a real training programme, not just shadowing. Shadowing you at one event is helpful, but it's not enough. A proper training plan might include equipment setup and breakdown using your written checklist and training video, a run-through of common technical issues and how to solve them, role-play of guest interactions like shy guests, drunk guests, and queue management, and a full mock event setup in your living room or storage space. Investing in training up-front saves you from fixing mistakes later.
- Set expectations and communicate clearly. Don't assume people just know what you expect. Explain how early you expect them to arrive, how and when to confirm they're on their way, what to do if something goes wrong, and what success looks like at an event, for example happy guests, a tidy setup, and clear communication with the organiser. A quick pre-event call to recap the brief can calm nerves and prevent miscommunication.
- Give feedback and support after every event. After each event, check in with your team member while it's still fresh. Ask what went well, what felt challenging, and whether there's anything they weren't sure about. Then share your own feedback, both positives and any improvements, in a kind, specific way. Over time this process turns a helper into a confident professional who truly represents your brand.
- Pay fairly and create reasons to stay. If you pay as little as possible, you'll usually get people who care as little as possible. Event work is demanding; your rate should respect the responsibility involved. Consider a fair per-event fee that reflects travel, setup, late finishes, and guest interaction, small bonuses when a client mentions them by name in a review, and priority shifts for your most reliable attendants. People stay where they feel valued, respected, and part of something that matters.
Key takeaways
- Write a clear job description before you tell anyone you're hiring.
- Create a brand standards and training pack your team can review before every event.
- Plan a simple onboarding journey: training, shadow event, supported solo event, regular feedback.
- Talk openly with your team about expectations on both sides, yours and theirs.
- Pay in a way that makes great people want to stay and grow with your business.