A guest post by Elaine Pofeldt, author of The Million-Dollar One-Person Business.

Many people think that scaling up and running a one-person business are mutually exclusive ideas. That might have been true years ago, when the best way to grow a business was by hiring employees, but that reality has changed for many entrepreneurs.

Thanks to digital technology, abundant freelance platforms, and the growth of inexpensive marketing automation tools, it is very possible to scale your revenue without adding legions of employees. That reality presents exciting possibilities for small business owners who have not yet achieved the cash-flow where they can add payroll or would rather collaborate with contractors than be a boss.

As I discovered in researching my upcoming book The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business (Random House, Jan. 2, 2018) and reporting on ultra-lean businesses in my journalism work, there are many entrepreneurs who are growing their firms to seven-figure revenue without adding payroll. In 2015, 35,584 “nonemployer” firms hit $1 million to $2.49 million in revenue—up 33% since 2011—according to U.S. Census data. Nonemployer firms whose owners are the sole employees.

So why are the owners of these firms able to scale their revenues so successfully? Here are three factors I’ve observed:

They ignore the status quo.

Owners of high-revenue, ultra-lean businesses are highly independent thinkers. They don’t let what others have done before them dictate how they will run their businesses and look at their businesses in ways that are genuinely fresh. That enables them to break revenue barriers for businesses of their size.

One example is Dana Derricks, an entrepreneur I interviewed recently. Derricks, a copywriter, began self-publishing books to teach others how to write their own copy, but unlike many other authors, priced them based on the value he thought they would bring to readers. They sell for $400 to $2,500—and many customers are buying them. Thanks to such endeavors he told me he broke $ 1 million in revenue prior to hiring employees. His story reminded me of how important it is to question prevailing ways of doing business and trust your experience if you have found a better way to do things.

They know when to call in experts.

Many free agents assume they have to stick with their core expertise to succeed. Doing what you know makes good sense, but sometimes it helps to augment your knowledge. Owners of high-revenue, ultra-lean firms, in my experience, seem to be more willing than average to invest in talent with deep expertise.

One example is Sol Orwell, who runs a business called Examine.com in Toronto. His company sells reports and other publications on nutritional supplements. Orwell is very interested in nutrition and well-versed in it. However, when it comes to writing the reports, he doesn’t wing it. He hires PhDs and other experts as consultants to evaluate the research on various supplements. The credibility of the information he provides gives him an edge.

Nick Shaw, a competitive powerlifter, has taken a similar approach at Renaissance Periodization, a training and diet services company for athletes in Charlotte, N.C. Although he is an avid bodybuilder, when he decided to sell a new product—prebuilt diets—he hired an exercise physiology consultant to help him develop the diets.

The takeaway: If you feel like you’ve reached the limits of your expertise in your business, maybe it’s time to trust that instinct and team up with someone who can help you offer even more to your customers.

They aren’t afraid to jump into the ring.

Many solo entrepreneurs drag their feet on introducing new products and services because of fear of failure. That can reduce the risks in their businesses but it also limits opportunities to grow their revenues.

Entrepreneurs who have built seven-figure, one-person businesses are willing to put their ideas to the test—often in public ways. Take neonatal nurse Wendy Colson, RN, who started baking nutrition bars in her kitchen for the new moms in her lactation support group. The bars became so popular she began selling them and achieved a very high re-order rate. But Colson realized it was one thing to sell to people who knew her well and another to market the bars to a wider audience. So, to see if she could scale the idea, she put up a simple website to sell her bars to the public—and after sales took off—invested more in the business. It now brings in more than $1 million in annual revenue.

It’s not easy to leave behind the ways of thinking that keep many very small businesses from reaching their potential. But if you want to grow a business that brings you prosperity, economic stability and opportunities for growth and giving back to your community, expanding your mindset can be well worth the effort.

Elaine Pofeldt is an independent journalist who specializes in small business, entrepreneurship and careers. Her work has appeared in FORTUNE, Money, CNBC, Inc., Forbes, Crain’s New York Business and many other business publications and she is a contributor to the Economist Intelligence Unit. She is the author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, a look at how entrepreneurs are hitting seven-figure revenue in businesses where they are the only employees, tapping automation and other technology to scale their efforts (Random House, 2018).

As a senior editor at FORTUNE Small Business, where she worked for eight years, Elaine was twice nominated for the National Magazine Award for her features and ran the magazine’s annual business plan completion. During her time at FSB, she ran the magazine’s website, fsb.com, for four years, building its traffic from two to five million page views a month.

You’ve been searching long and hard for a gift that will show how much you appreciate your employees and clients. But you’re more than a bit concerned that it might be viewed as dull or trite. You could buy a gourmet gift basket, but what if they have dietary restrictions? And a bottle of scotch wouldn’t go down particularly well with the teetotalers. Remember that a holiday gift is a gesture of your appreciation. It doesn’t have to be expensive to make a significant impact. The holiday season is the time of year where the thought really does count. Here are our top out of the box holiday gift ideas that will show you care without blowing your budget.

Grocery or department store cards

With the added expenses during the holiday season, grocery or department store gift cards are very welcome by many. It allows your employees to purchase a few luxury items without blowing their budget. It could be a massive hit with the clients and could keep them in biscuits and coffee the entire year. Or if you would prefer to be more generic, you could opt for a personalized visa card.

Monthly Gift Subscription

There are so many great gift subscription boxes at the moment, and it is truly a wonderful idea as it keeps on coming throughout the year. Consider a monthly tea or coffee box – something that will be used and appreciated rather than an item that just sits in the corner gathering dust. Even candy or cookies make a delightful and fun treat as an employee or client gift.

Coffee Mugs

There is no confusing their coffee mugs if your team has their very own personalized versions to drink out of. It will avoid the dreaded mug mix up, and you can always bundle it together with another gift if you intend to make a big impression. It is definitely a great place to start for those on a small budget.

Charity Gift

Giving the gift of charity is a fantastic thing to do. It encourages people to give graciously to others, even if it is not their own money they’re spending. And you don’t have to pay a lot for your employees or clients to make a difference in someone’s life. You can choose from well-respected charities such as Kiva which refunds the money to be lent again, or opt for a one-time purchase from Oxfam.

Plants

While flowers seem to be a standard gift during the holiday season and do make a lovely gesture, they don’t tend to last very long. A plant is a generous gesture for eco-friendly companies and will show your appreciation in spades. You can even go so far as to personalize the planter if it is a corporate gift. From cacti to succulents, there are many companies that offer the gift of plants during the holiday season.

Cupcakes

I am hard pressed to imagine anyone not enjoying cupcakes unless they are gluten intolerant and even then, they can still be sourced for the holiday season. Traditional cupcakes or even macarons can be FedExed all across the country to arrive safely at your intended destination. Or if you are after something a little bit special, Wicked Good Cupcakes ships cupcakes in a jar.

Fitbit

Being concerned about your employees’ health and well-being is admirable, and there is no better way to show that than with a Fitbit. It helps your employers focus on their exercise levels and puts their work-life balance at the forefront of their mind. It’s non-traditional and can advise them on their sleep patterns and movements throughout the day.

Healthy Snacks

Most workplaces tend to get a bad rap for unhealthy snacks such as donuts and other carb-laden goodies. So why not give the gift of a healthy snack such as a box of goodies from Snack Nation or Urthbox. Your clients and employees will love it, and if they choose to continue to use the company’s service, then it is entirely up to them.

Event Gifts

Giving a gift of an event is always well received, provided it is something that everyone enjoys doing. Rather than paintballing or rock climbing, consider giving out cinema tickets so your employees and clients can catch all the best releases on their own time. Many have executive seating and in-house menu service, so check out the cinemas close to you to see what is available. If you are in a major city with events happening all the time, you can buy a gift card from a site such as TicketMaster, and they can choose what kind of concert or show they see for themselves.

Anyone running a small business can tell you what an intimate and daunting act it is to hire someone new. You’re hiring for talent and skill, of course, but you’re also trying to make that perfect culture fit so you don’t have any conflicts with your current staff.

No pressure, but if you make a bad decision, you’ll have to live with the consequences and most likely be forced into a difficult conversation—which will lead you to the beginning of the cycle all over again.

So how do you mitigate that outcome? Sure, you know on the surface what you’re looking for in a resume, but that’s not enough. Resumes tell stories. And unless you know how to read them, you’re missing out on half of what they have to say.

Look for a logical progression.

Consider your candidate’s last few jobs. Have they progressed in their job titles? Have they taken on more responsibility? Have they been promoted? Sometimes, at a certain point, people will plateau, shifting from job to job at the same level. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—it means they might excel at their duties—but in a small-business environment, you’ll generally want self-starters who can thrive and exceed expectations.

Look for hard data, not fluff.

Compare the two following sentences: “I was in charge of optimizing our website for conversions with ROI goals as per strict KPI metrics,” versus, “I grew our website traffic by more than 50% year-over-year for three years, which helped earn me the ABC Business Award for Excellence.” See the difference? One means something; the other is bloated junk.

Look for consistency online.

Of course you’ll search for them on Google; this goes without saying. But cross-referencing their submitted resumes with their resumes on LinkedIn or Monster is a useful step. Often one will have specific vocational information the others lack—it’s not unusual to tailor your resume to a prospective employee—but you could also find some contradictory dates that raise red flags. Going a step beyond to look at their other social platforms is also handy. If they’re dumb enough to rant about how much they hate their job publicly online, you shouldn’t be dumb enough to hire them.

(Bonus tip: You should also look at who they follow and who follows them online. You can sometimes learn more about a person that way than by looking at their actual tweets.)

Look for keywords if you’re swamped.

Overwhelmed by all the info in a sea of CVs? It’s easy to get lost in over-analyzing each candidate. Professional recruiters will whittle down applicants by scanning or even searching for certain keywords in their resume with the help of applicant tracking software. These can be a skillset, software, tool or role that you know your ideal candidate will have.

Look for logistical problems.

If their work and education experience are all in one city such as Chicago, are you sure they would be willing to relocate to Boston, or St. Louis for example? Are you willing to help pay relocation costs for the right candidate? If you iron out those details internally before you start looking for candidates, it will save you valuable time in the resume review process. And the last thing you want to do is get to an offer stage, only for the candidate to get cold feet about moving.

Look at their portfolio, if applicable.

If hiring someone who’s going to have some creative license, you’ll want to see their past work. If they’re clever, they’ll embed links to particular works in the PDF version of their resume, so you don’t have to go hunting independently for it. This goes without saying for writers, illustrators, photographers, designers and artists, but you can also look and ask for portfolios of past projects, successful proposals and business websites.

Look for employment gaps.

This is not necessarily a red flag, but it’s something you can search out and inquire more about in person. Maybe they quit their job to live in a van and drive around the United States for six months, or maybe they got fired and had trouble finding new work. Regardless, it’s a critical part of their story you’ll want to explore.

Look at their most recent job role.

Does it match the position for which you’re hiring? If they’re a current software engineer applying for a job as your sales manager, there’s a disconnect that needs to be addressed. Are they unhappy at their current job, or are they looking for a change in direction? If resumes tell stories, then working for you will be their next chapter. Considering their most recent role will help you determine whether that chapter will be any good.

Hiring can be a daunting task for a small business owner running a small shop. There are many things to take into consideration, but if you can check these eight elements off the list, you’re on the right track to hiring your next rockstar.

While client gifts may be at the forefront of your mind this holiday season, throwing a company party can be a lot of fun if handled properly. If you can hold a party which is appropriate for all levels of employees, without blowing the budget, then you’re halfway there. While you may have been involved in a horror holiday party yourself, it doesn’t have to be that way. With a bit of creativity, you can meet everyone’s expectations and even be able to let your hair down yourself.

Every office is different, and there’s no particular right way or wrong way to tackle it – just do what is best for your team and your office environment. So if you’re feeling the pressure and want to put together an event that everyone will remember, read on for helpful planning tips.

Start Early

If you intend to host a holiday party, then the reality is you need to start planning today (or better yet, yesterday). There are so many great reasons to throw a party; the most important being that your associates, colleagues or employees probably have earned it. More than anything, planning the event early allows you to lock in a date and choose a suitable venue. For those with kids, late December may be challenging to navigate due to school events and festivities. Just remember, the earlier you begin the brainstorming, the more options you’ll have.

Plan an activity

While a holiday party may be part of your corporate culture, it can also be fun to mix it up a bit. Why not plan an activity that people can enjoy? Depending on the size of your company, you may want to consider paintballing or bowling or even take in a movie together – something that veers away from the standard sit down and dine approach. Have a look in your local area and see what companies can put together as a corporate event. And for those who want to continue the fun afterward, you can always plan an alternative venue for drinks and appetizers if there’s interest.

Have a wide variety of food

Whatever kind of party you do intend to throw, it is essential that you take into account everyone’s dietary needs. And that includes drinks as well. Make sure a wide range of options are available to cater for vegetarians, vegans, healthy eaters, picky eaters, non-drinkers, etc., and that there is enough to go round. There’s nothing worse than leaving a party hungry if the original intention was to feed everyone.

Rent a party space

If you hire a party space, then the reality is you can do whatever you want. You can organize a potluck celebration, hire a caterer, have lucky door prizes or arrange a band or a DJ –whatever you like. It gives you the ability to start from scratch – a blank slate if you will. You can set a theme and run with it, taking special care that it caters to everyone’s interests.

Take a vote

Why not ask those attending what they want to do? You might just be surprised by their responses. You may find they want the opportunity to dress up or that they want to spend their time volunteering rather than just sitting in a bar drinking. Put it to the group so at least the organizing committee can work from a series of ideas submitted. You can’t please everyone – but at least you can attempt to satisfy the majority of your team.

Give Back

Everyone tends to be in a very giving spirit towards the end of the calendar year, and it’s a great time to organize a get together which involves helping others. Rather than fork out for a huge party, you can come up with a plan to aid a local charity in whatever area they need assistance with. You can guarantee that your team will get a lot out this type of event, and you can also make a real difference. Volunteering is a wonderful bonding experience for groups and a great excuse to share those corporate photos on social media.

Hold It During Office Hours

Not everyone has time to attend a big formal gala, so what better way to show gratitude to your team than to allow them to knock off work early and enjoy an in-office celebration. It could be as fancy or as casual as you like; but either way, it allows everyone to mingle in a less formal environment. There is no pressure for people to stay after hours if they don’t feel like it.

Whether your budget is time, you’re short on time, or you’ve waited until the last minute to plan, with these simple tips, you can put together an enjoyable, office-appropriate celebration for your team without the stress.