Start Sooner: The HR Foundation That Saves You Later

If you're building a business — especially a people-first business — this is the episode I wish I had when I was just getting started.

In this conversation, I sat down with HR expert Ciera Parks to talk about the stuff no one tells you when you're growing a team. We're talking policies, payroll, compliance… the things that feel “corporate” but are absolutely critical if you want your business to grow without turning into chaos.

Because here’s the truth: HR isn’t just about policies. It’s about protection. It’s about people. It’s about setting up your business to actually work — for the long haul.

Let’s dive into what we covered in this eye-opening chat:

You don’t have issues — until you do.
This is one of the first things Ciera said and it stuck with me: “You don’t have any issues… until you have an issue.” That’s how most business owners treat HR. They wait. They assume it’ll be fine. Until it’s not. And that delay? That’s what ends up costing the most — in stress, money, and damage to your team culture.

Foundations > Firefighting
Ciera shared so many examples of simple HR policies that would’ve saved business owners from massive headaches — like an attendance policy. Yes, even if it’s just you and your cousin working in your business. Because what happens when your cousin’s late… and your new hire notices?

It’s not just about rules — it’s about consistency. Culture. Clarity.

Solopreneurs need HR too.
Think you don’t need HR until you hire your first employee? Think again. Ciera walked us through why even if you’re a team of one, you need to think about things like how you pay yourself, how you track work, and how you protect your business legally.

And when you’re ready to grow, having those foundations in place is what allows you to scale without spiraling.

Remote culture takes intention.
I loved Ciera’s insights on how remote teams still need structure. Just because you don’t walk into the same building doesn’t mean expectations shouldn’t be clear. Work hours, meetings, professionalism, communication norms — it all matters. And without it? You create confusion and conflict.

Ask for help.
This was probably my favorite part of the episode. Ciera said: “Ask for help. You don’t need to do it alone.” She reminded us that good HR doesn’t mean hiring a full-time department — it means having a resource. Someone you can call when something feels off. Someone to guide you before things go sideways.

You don’t need to be perfect — you just need to be proactive.
There’s no shame in not knowing this stuff. I didn’t know it either when I was starting out. But hearing from Ciera helped me realize how many business headaches are totally preventable if you start sooner.

And if your goal is to lead well, create great culture, and build a business that lasts?

You need this conversation.

Want to build a smarter, stronger team?

🎧 Listen to the full episode: https://amandakaufman.net/podcast
📝 Take the free Messaging Quiz: https://amandakaufman.net
🤝 Join our coaching community: https://login.thecoachesplaza.com/communities/groups/clients-over-chaos/home
🔗 Connect with Ciera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cieraparks

Chapters List

00:00 Introduction to HR and Entrepreneurship

03:15 The Importance of Early HR Involvement

05:37 Navigating HR Challenges as a Solopreneur

08:42 Common HR Mistakes and Their Consequences

11:17 HR Considerations for Virtual Teams

14:03 The Value of Seeking HR Help

14:46 Conclusion and Resources

Full Transcript

Ciera (00:00)

what I tell people is you don't have any issues until you have an issue. And that's just how people work, right? It's all good until it's not. And someone goes and gets a lawyer and sues you and now you're like, what happened here, right?

Amanda Kaufman (00:04)

Mm-hmm.

Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And I am so excited to welcome my friend, Sierra, to the show. She is an HR genius. She loves helping businesses to do better with HR. And, you know, she's she's actually a friend of a friend of mine. And I'm so excited to have her here on the show, because I think, you know, in my own entrepreneurial journey, I didn't know.

Ciera (00:30)

I'll see you in next video.

I think it's a good idea.

Amanda Kaufman (00:55)

what I didn't know when it came to HR. So I'm so excited to have you here, because I'm sure we're going to learn something awesome today.

Ciera (01:03)

That's the plan, Amanda. Thanks for having me here. And friend of a friend, thanks for connecting us. But I'm excited to chat.

Amanda Kaufman (01:09)

I love it. love it. So Sierra, why don't you take 30 seconds and just catch everybody up on what is your specialty? What is it that you are doing in the world?

Ciera (01:18)

Absolutely. So, been in HR for nearly 20 years, stumbled into the career, found my niche, and today I run an HR consulting firm based out of Greater Baltimore, Maryland, where we work with small and mid-sized business owners to help them stand up their HR department either as a complete outsource, a resource, or a corporate trainer.

Amanda Kaufman (01:37)

That's awesome. That's awesome. So you seem to work with people in lots of different ways. I ask people this all the time. It's especially entrepreneurs. Like you said, you stumbled into it. Is there more to the story? Why did you become an entrepreneur and why focus on HR in particular?

Ciera (01:55)

Yep, so I started my career in HR and HR has so many moving parts, right? I mean, like, so let's be super clear, like one HR person is not the same as another because our niches might be different, our specialties might be different. And so I found my space in my place where I realized that that seat is very much so next to the business owner as a CEO whisperer, right? Like I am your strategic partner in helping you make the right decisions to not get sued and keep your people working for you happily.

Amanda Kaufman (02:01)

Mm-hmm.

Ciera (02:22)

And so COVID happened and I mean it was a crazy time and I think the world was expecting people, especially HR people to be like super geniuses and know what to do with a pandemic breaking out in the world. And I was like, no, I haven't been in a pandemic before, apologies, right? But here we are now and we're gonna figure this out together. And I think it was such a weird space for people. And I saw a place where,

there's an opportunity for me to do good with people who want to do right by their people and their teams. And so thus the business was born, right? How do we just do good HR for business owners and leaders who want to do right?

Amanda Kaufman (02:59)

So good, so good. like needed as well because the, like you said, the world of, you know, hiring, staying, of course, compliant is so important, but in today's world, it's also super important to stay competitive. You know, if you, if you don't have an environment that people want to be in, you're not going to get the best of people. And if you don't get the best of people,

then you're gonna hemorrhage the profit, you're gonna lose a lot of opportunity and open yourself up to a tremendous amount of risk. So it's a really, really important area for sure. I know a lot of our listeners are maybe earlier in their own journey as an entrepreneur. And a suspicion I have, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but a suspicion I have is that you would rather that people started to learn about HR a little earlier than they typically bring it up. Like, is that fair?

Ciera (03:40)

It's just.

That is a fair, fair statement. So I tell people all the time, if you're starting a business, you maybe don't need me on your first day, but by day 30 of building out this concept of a business, you should be talking to someone because you're either going to need people, you're going to need some extra help, you're going to need some extra resources, you're going to need to think about things that you haven't thought of. And if it's nothing else that I just want to pay myself as a business owner, how do I do that the right way? You might want to start over here.

Amanda Kaufman (03:53)

Okay.

Ciera (04:18)

And there are so many things that when I talk to business owners, if we could go back, I would have done things differently for you to make it easier for you today.

Amanda Kaufman (04:19)

See you.

Mm. Like so many things, you know, the right foundations can make all the difference in the future. Yeah. And like, what do you see?

Ciera (04:33)

Yeah. You know what I see a lot,

I see business owners who will out the gate hire their family members. And that's cool, right? It's totally fine. I get it. Your tribe is around. They want to support you. They love you. And then eventually you go, mm, my mom is not the best person to be doing my HR. Or my brother is not a good bookkeeper. And you're like, now you're kind of stuck with them and you don't want to be. And now it's trying to figure out how to back out of that relationship without making it sticky and icky at Thanksgiving.

Amanda Kaufman (05:03)

Mm hmm. That's a big one. And, you know, I have worked well, I'm in partnership with my husband. So there's that. And then I've had my sister working in my company for years. She's no longer working with us. But, you know, all good, all good to the dear listener. But boy, I wish I met you like back then when when I was thinking about hiring and thinking about bringing these people in.

Ciera (05:18)

And... ⁓

Amanda Kaufman (05:28)

Something you said that was so interesting is like, just even how the individual pays themselves. Like what's something that you see, especially the solopreneur, not really understanding or realizing about their own HR when they are a team of one.

Ciera (05:44)

Yep, so people think that I can just start doing the thing, making the widget or providing the service. And the reality is you still need a team of people behind you.

And the thing that a resource of HR comes with is we come with other resources, right? Like it's in our name. And so it's, hey, let's make sure you have the right team of people around you because typically in a business you would hire these people if you were, you know, moneybags McGee. But in this situation, you're not going to hire a separate accounting team and a finance team and a bookkeeping team. And it's like, as an HR partner, that's what we can surround you with, right? We can help you find the people who would otherwise be a part of your team, but you still need those.

Amanda Kaufman (05:55)

Mm-hmm.

Ciera (06:24)

the one solo-preneur type of person.

Amanda Kaufman (06:27)

Yeah, yeah, the function doesn't go away. The role doesn't go away. And there's still so many hours in the day. Like you can't you can't be everywhere all the once all at once all the time. And I mean, you really do have this choice. It's like you do you want to skill up the way somebody who's dedicated and specialized is skilled up and therefore not skill up in your core competence? Or do you want to find the right person, maybe on a more fractional

basis that you can share that share that capability among a lot of different businesses. Yeah.

Ciera (06:59)

Exactly,

exactly. It's one of the things that for us, I want you as a business owner to go do whatever it is you're doing.

Go make the widget, provide the service, sell the thing. I'm not asking you to be a marketing team and a finance team and an HR team and an IT team. That's my job, right? Let me help get those things in place for you so that you can go do what you're passionate about and not be beating your head at night in your, you know, you got your nine to five at night or five to nine and you got your 10 to two, right? You're up all day trying to be a business owner. It's like, let's plug in some places here.

Amanda Kaufman (07:31)

Yeah, yeah, so good. So when somebody starts working with someone like yourself, what are some of the things that you typically are working on right away with a business that's maybe more established and they're starting to think about expanding?

Ciera (07:48)

So the first thing we're gonna do is an HR assessment. This is a comprehensive, approximately 30 page report where we go through everything in your HR umbrella.

And then we say, OK, let's diagnose what's happening here. Sometimes organizations do really well, right? And we give them the score back. That's part of the assessment. Hey, you're doing a great job. We have a few recommendations, and we give you those recommendations. Other times, you see organizations who are really bleeding out and a lot of risk. And so the first thing I'm going to tell anyone, whether you do it with me or another HR consultant, is get an assessment to figure out where your HR function stands today. And by proxy of the things that we touch, we're going to talk about a lot of things that maybe you wouldn't consider traditional HR.

Amanda Kaufman (08:26)

Why do think people shy away from hiring somebody, you know, to help with this? Because I just I've noticed that, you know, among a lot of entrepreneurs, it's like they got they got 99 problems, right. And so they're so but the thing about human capital and human resources and humans is humans are predictably unpredictable.

You know, like it probably does represent a significant expense in an established business and also a significant risk. So what do you think it is about attitudes towards getting help with this sort of thing that are so prevalent? Because yeah, like what do you think's up there?

Ciera (09:05)

So one of the things I hear most is I have a small team. That's one of the first rebuttals. And the other one is we don't have any issues today. Those are the two things that I hear most often. And what I tell people is you don't have any issues until you have an issue. And that's just how people work, right? It's all good until it's not. And someone goes and gets a lawyer and sues you and now you're like, what happened here, right?

Amanda Kaufman (09:13)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ciera (09:26)

And then the other thing is if you ever expect to be anything bigger than what you are today, then we should start laying these foundational principles. And that's where I go back to, there are things that I would have put in place for business owners in the beginning, that as they grew and scaled, they would have been better protected from some of the issues that happen once you get to that 50 and higher, or you hire number, you know, person number 101. I would have done things for you to just help then, to prevent some of those fallouts for you later on.

Amanda Kaufman (09:55)

Can you give me some examples of something like maybe some case studies or examples of where you would have put something in but maybe you weren't able to or it was just it was a little too late? Like what are some of the examples of those things?

Ciera (10:10)

Easy one, attendance policy. That's the easiest one. So it's me, my mom, my brother, my cousin.

We don't need an attendance policy. We don't need a time clock. Everyone's going to show up on time and inevitably, I guarantee you, your cousin says, it's not that important. And all of sudden they stopped showing up on time. I guarantee you that's what happens. And then you go and you hire your first person who's not related to you. And they go, man, it's really funny that your cousin gets to show up late every day. But when I was five minutes late, you bit my head off. And immediately you have some type of disgruntled employee now who's saying that you're doing one thing for your family, different from me.

And it would have been, let's just put a simple attendance policy in place and said, if someone was late, we would do this. Or this is what late means. Or this is what constitutes an absence. Or this is what constitutes a no-call no-show. And I guarantee you that would have made things so much easier for you by the time you got a little bit further down and now you're trying to backtrack with all this absenteeism that's bleeding out in the business and also causing a really bad rub for you and the rest of the team.

Amanda Kaufman (10:48)

you

For sure, yeah. I mean, I think about like a culture of lateness, know, like that is so destructive just right off the bat. I love that. have any other ones that are just like, this is so obvious and nobody knows?

Ciera (11:23)

Yeah.

You know what's really funny? Time clock placement. And so, you know, if you do have a business where people are gonna need the clock in or out, where did you put that time clock? Did you put the time clock all the way in the back of the building? And so now by the time a person walks through the front door, gets to the clock, technically they're already late, but they were in the building on time?

Amanda Kaufman (11:39)

Interesting.

Ciera (11:47)

And people don't think about, put the time clock in the break room because people can clock in and out when they go get their lunch. But they're not clocking in when they come through the building first thing in the morning. So now that's in an inconvenient place, right? Another one is, how are you tracking your employee files? Seems, I'm just going to take the file and I'll have all the things. Inevitably, however you're doing it is not consistent.

Amanda Kaufman (11:47)

Interesting.

Hmm?

Ciera (12:12)

And all of a sudden you're missing people's files. You get audited and you're missing things so significant that they're going to either find you significantly, right? Lots and lots of money or perhaps shut your business down that day.

Amanda Kaufman (12:16)

Mmm.

Goodness gracious, yeah. Now this is really, really significant. I'm so curious, like for virtual businesses, like are there any things that you think are particularly applicable? know, lot of my clients in my community, they're building, you know, online entities and they're located all over, you know, the country and sometimes even the world, you know, spread across like all these different teams. What risks do you think are particularly?

a watch out, something to think about if you are a virtual company.

Ciera (12:59)

Yep, so the first thing I'm going to put at you is your payroll system. Because when you have people who sit everywhere, and I love a good remote team, Love a good remote team. Shout out to all my remote clients. But it's, your payroll system set up to pay employees in several different states?

That's the first thing. Do you know that for sure? And then if you're going to be saying that you have employees who are international, so I've got a couple people who are abroad or whatever, do you have those right types of legal and compliance pieces in place? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, maybe you don't know, right? And then the other thing that's going to show up from a virtual team is the culture that you keep.

Amanda Kaufman (13:15)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ciera (13:34)

When you

don't have a building that everyone walks in, Amanda, there is no way for you to dictate what's happening unless you're very intentional about saying this is what the culture is here. And so often what I see is things start to spiral out of control because it's like, well, no one ever told me what the real work hours were, or no one ever told me when I was supposed to be online or what a deadline looked like.

meetings looked like if they were being professionally recorded. And they don't know, and now they do whatever they want. And inevitably someone gets upset, and is upset about how someone did or didn't conduct themselves, and it creates a rubble. We just could have set expectations earlier.

Amanda Kaufman (14:12)

For sure, for sure. speaking from my own experience of a virtual team, it's like, think a thing I didn't expect was just how much communication and thoughtfulness would have to go into creating culture and creating the standards or the expectations of how it is that we do work because it is extra tricky, I think, when you're remote like that. That's so cool.

So Sierra, what's the one thing that you really wish every entrepreneur or business owner knew when it came to HR?

Ciera (14:44)

OOF

I guess if I had to give them one, it would be to ask for help. Ask for help. think so often CEOs and business owners say, hey, this is mine and I want to do what I want to do and I want to run it the way I want to run it and I have a vision for myself. And I say, that's all great. But at some point you have to ask for the help that you need.

And that's what I would advise them. your back's on the wall and something's happening and you just don't know and you genuinely are like, have a question, ask. Call someone and ask them. And I tell my clients all the time, maybe you don't need us every day, but if you ever just have a question about a people issue, just call us.

Amanda Kaufman (15:04)

Mm-hmm.

There you go. I love it. Well, Sierra, what's the best way for people to find you?

Ciera (15:24)

LinkedIn, so we are all over LinkedIn, Sierra Parks or the company page is Consult with Sierra or CWCHR.

Amanda Kaufman (15:33)

I love it. love it. And dear listener, we'll make sure that Sierra's links are all in the show notes around this video or audio, however you happen to be consuming the show. so Sierra, thank you so much for being here and for giving us some ideas around HR. I really appreciate you.

Ciera (15:49)

Amanda, thank you for taking the time to be interested in HR and I hope your listeners got a lot out of it.

Amanda Kaufman (15:55)

I think that we really did, we all did. And by the way, dear listener, don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already and be sure to share this episode with three of your friends who are building a business. They wanna be compliant, they wanna avoid like the big costs and the risks and they wanna treat people the right way. If that's your friend, then make sure that you're sharing this with them. And until I see you guys again, make sure that you do what matters.