You’re on your way to growing your business. Kudos and high fives all around. Bonus points to you. Expanding your team is a pretty big, not to mention, an awesome step. The next questions to answer are: Who you should hire? and Where to find the best talent and prospects for your business?

The positions you should focus on first will vary depending on your business and the industry in which your business operates. While we all want this to be an easy process, over 60 percent of small businesses state that they have a difficult time finding the best talent for the necessary positions. Read on to gain a few tips to help you find the best people in terms of skills, culture fit, and retention.

Typically, small businesses succeed in growing with employees that are flexible and are self-starters. With smaller teams comes fewer resources, and that could also be an attraction for potential employees. Plenty of projects with fewer people also means employees get to wear multiple hats and gain far more experience. A high potential for growth is a huge factor that people consider when looking at open positions.

Before we get ahead of ourselves though, let’s start with the job description. After all, that’s how you’re going to find your candidates. With the job description, be sure to include any and all desired qualifications and skills. Not to mention if such things like travel or being bilingual are a part of the job. Overall, the job description should be specific, but simple. Provide a taste of your organizational culture and follow a bullet point structure to make it easier to read.

Where do you find candidates?

Try utilizing social media, mainly LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a perfect place for recruiting prospects. Not only can you post targeted ads, but you can also handpick the candidates you want to interview as you receive them. Using LinkedIn also gives you an opportunity to communicate your brand and culture.

There’s also the tried and true method of staffing agencies, which takes care of a lot of the work for you. Most staffing agencies will manage stuff such as background checks and initial introductions.

A unique one to try (and really the best place to start): your own personal network. Ask mentors, friends, industry colleagues, anyone you trust, to see if they have recommendations. Using this tactic is beneficial as some of the prescreening process is already taken care of for you. One thing to keep in mind is to not over-exhaust your personal network as you do not want to ignore other external options. Whether its your own network, agencies, or social media, these methods are great outlets to ensure you can get the best of the best.

A word of caution, you may want to avoid the bigger job boards such as Monster.com as you can be bombarded with resumes. And with so many to sort through, you may quickly realize that this may not be the wise way to go as you start out.

In a competitive job market, it is important to hire right. Knowing where to find the best candidates for your business ensures your company will continue to scale and succeed. And by following the above steps, you can rest assured you’re heading in the right direction.