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Hiring employees at a start-up is probably the most important step of any business’s growth. The people you hire are the eyes, ears, hands, and mouth of the company. They will create the products and perform the services, listen for feedback and customer complaints, respond to problems and more. They’re the people who sell, and everyone from the receptionist to the stock clerk has the potential to connect with your customers in a positive or negative way.

In addition to thinking about employees as the key parts of a company, it is important to think about team dynamics. Make sure that you hire people you want to work with, and who believe in the vision of your company. There’s an old saying that “A people hire A people, and B people hire C people.” If you hire the best people, when it’s their job to hire, they’ll also hire great people. Dennis Crowley of Foursquare recently spoke on the challenges of being a CEO. He spoke about hiring a programmer, and eventually promoting him. The programmer then had to realize that he could spend a week fixing a problem, or spend a few days and hire people who were better at the problem to code for him. If you teach employees to hire for great skills and not to be afraid to hire people better than them, you’ll constantly improve your company with each hire.

The legal aspects of hiring are many and varied. It’s important to know the restricted information you can’t ask  in a job interview (things like race, height, weight, and more.) This piece called “Don’t ask an applicant these questions” does a good job of summarizing, but a chat with your attorney is a good idea. These issues should be discussed with other employees, board members, or advisors if they’re helping you vet candidates since anyone acting on your behalf could open you to a legal issue.

That brings up another point – don’t “improv” in a job interview. You should know the questions you want to ask, and how you want to ask them, before a candidate arrives. If you’re being deliberate and have a list of qualifications, qualities, and skills you want in an employee, writing them down first is critical. Have a mentor, advisor, lawyer or other trusted person look over your list.

Bryan Janeczko - Founder, Wicked Start Bryan has successfully launched multiple startups, including NuKitchen and StartOut. His latest venture, Wicked Start, provides aspiring founders with a free startup roadmap to plan, fund, and launch a new venture. He is committed to helping small businesses grow and succeed for the long term. www.wickedstart.com | Facebook | @WickedStart | More from Bryan

Do you feel overwhelmed by technology? You’re not alone. A new study from SiteApps, conducted by the Incyte Group, found more than half (54 percent) of small and midsized businesses are concerned with technology outpacing their abilities to compete and worry that they’re falling behind the curve.

While small business owners in the study understand the importance of their websites, the study also found many of them have a long way to go in bringing their sites up to par. Small business owners say improving and overhauling their sites is a major priority for 2013. If they were given a blank check, 34 percent would choose a new website over all other marketing investments—more than double the response to the second-ranking (at 15 percent) paid search campaigns.

This year, two-thirds of small business owners plan to improve their websites. Specifically:

• 41 percent will make aesthetic or design improvements
• 33 percent will add new static content
• 26 percent will add targeting and personalization
• 20 percent will add integrated social feeds, and
• 18 percent will add interactive widgets.

However, SiteApps reports many small business owners aren’t setting their websites up for success:

• 75 percent do not use an analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) to measure website performance.
• 60 percent do not feel they have the tools to make sense of their site’s analytics or take action to resolve issues.
• 60 percent do not have a mobile website or know if their website is mobile compatible (35 percent and 25 percent, respectively).

I’m glad small business owners are recognizing the importance of business websites, but I’m concerned that so many of them feel stymied in making the most of their website. Fortunately, there’s a place you can turn for help: SCORE. If you don’t already have a SCORE mentor who can help you make sense of the Web, visit www.score.org to get matched with one—and get started making your business website the best it can be.

Rieva Lesonsky - CEO, GrowBiz Media Rieva is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company specializing in covering small businesses and entrepreneurship. She was formerly Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine and has written several books about small business and entrepreneurship. www.growbizmedia.com | @rieva | More from Rieva