One of the advantages of small business is that you do not need a huge team to run it. As the team is relatively small, you can basically handpick your staff. On the other hand, every member of the small team is almost equally important to your success, so it would be rational to pay attention to the process.

You will employ up to ten people both permanently employed directly running your escape room and on free-lance/contract basis, but the team might be expanded or minimized if need be. In the hiring process you should be driven by following principles:

• Try to hire the best candidates, do not let yourself to compromise;
  
  
• Prefer emotionally intelligent candidates, who know how to react if something goes wrong, especially regarding the level of satisfaction of your players, who possibly can fail at the game; try to look for engaged employees, who like to work with people;
  
  
• Be ready to hire the people who do not have relevant experience at the position if they seem to have the necessary qualities (mainly concerns the operators and/or administrators);
  
  
• Make sure that your job offer is appealing (important at bigger markets) and try to mention promotion line.
  

While managing your team, try to follow these guidelines:

1) Happy employees = happy customers

2) Do not forget about training, even if the duties do not seem difficult

3) Try to be flexible with the working hours of your employed personnel – there might be situations when it is best to ask them to work 20 hours a week on one week and 40 the next one, depending on your bookings amount and the season, so sometimes you have to get creative.