Help is on the Way - Finding an Intern for Your Small Business Administration

A Home Business Article Contributed by Sharon Hill

An Intern Might Be Just the Administration Help Your Small Business Needs

When starting your small business, you are generally the sole person responsible for administration tasks. In fact, you may be the company's only employee. There could come a time, however, when your business is succeeding well enough that you need some help to keep growing, but haven't adequate funds to pay the local competitive rate. You may also, perhaps, hesitate to employ because you see your small business need for administration assistance as temporary.

An intern might be the ideal solution - in fact, it might be the perfect answer to help with administration tasks while your business is still small and struggling.

Just What is an Intern - How Can She or he Help with Small Business Administration?

There are several key elements of internships. They always involve some form of skilled or professional work tasks, either as a substitute for a temporarily absent regular employee, an assistant for a special project, or a temporary staff addition. Many internships are unpaid, often offering college credit as course work for a related field. Some internships are full time hours, some are part time. College students often opt for full time hours during the summer college break.

Using an intern to assist with your small business administration is a great way to find someone who is not only interested in your industry, but also currently training in the field. It gives you the option of working with someone who has the latest industry training, has commitment and zeal, and will work for little or no pay. It also allows you to 'try out' a potential candidate for a full time position with your firm when they have completed their education and your firm has been in existence long enough to afford and need additional employees.

Finding an Intern to Help with Your Small Business Administration

Before you start the intern hunt you will want to assess your firm's resources. You need to be sure you have a workload that will actually keep an intern occupied without overloading, that you have adequate and comfortable space to accommodate an extra person in the office, and that, if you have other staff, they support the internship and are prepared, with you, to take the time and show the patience to train the intern.

You also need to make clear to all concerned that an internship is not just about taking someone else's workload and handing it off, but that it's also about the intern learning on the job. While the intern has an obligation to you and your staff to fulfill the job tasks assigned to the internship, you and your staff have an obligation to the intern as well (especially an unpaid or underpaid intern) - to provide her or him with skills, experience and training he or she would not otherwise have obtained.

Your best source for finding an intern is the local college placement office. Each school will have its own requirements for internships, will probably have forms for you to complete to assess the work's value for credit, and to determine if the intern completed the internship satisfactorily. You will want to contact the placement office at least one semester prior to your need for an intern.