We recently sent out a survey to our Smart Marketer Live attendees to figure out their biggest roadblocks in business.
And as I poured over their answers, their number one struggle absolutely floored me.
It wasn’t funnels.
It wasn’t paid ads.
It wasn’t CRO, SEO, or email strategy.
It was hiring.
And while I was surprised by that at first, my business partner, John Grimshaw, told me I shouldn’t be — because that’s the exact problem we’d been trying to solve for the past year while scaling Smart Marketer’s agency.
The Small Business Hiring Problem
If you’re running a small or growing business, you already know this pain.
Finding qualified, reliable, culture-fit team members feels like a full-time job in itself.
And for most business owners, it is.
In fact, 75% of small business owners say hiring is their #1 challenge (source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce).
Nearly half report that unfilled roles are directly slowing down growth.
And the cost of a bad hire? On average, over $14,900 per role — not counting the emotional exhaustion that comes with starting over.
We felt all of it.
Every week, we were spinning our wheels. We’d post jobs, interview dozens of people, and onboard new hires that didn’t work out. Even when we found great candidates, the process was draining.
And as a company that was scaling fast, this was holding us back in a big way.
Something had to change.
The Turning Point
That’s when a friend introduced me to Alexander and his team at TLNT.
He told me, “You have to talk to these guys — they’re helping growing companies build incredible remote teams across Mexico and Latin America.”
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. We’d tried recruitment partners before, and it usually ended in more back-and-forth than results. But this time was different.
The process was clear, quick, and personal.
TLNT took the time to understand our business, our culture, and our goals — then matched us with candidates who were already vetted, experienced, and time-zone aligned.
Within weeks, we met creatives, strategists, and media buyers who didn’t just fit the job description — they fit us.
The Results
Since partnering with TLNT, we’ve hired multiple full-time team members through their process — and every single one is still with us.
That’s a 100% success rate.
They’ve become some of the most creative, reliable, and proactive people on our team.
The best part? It saved us months of time and thousands of dollars in recruiting, training, and turnover costs.
One of our team members even told me it was the smoothest, most supportive hiring process they’d ever gone through. Another said they felt “genuinely matched with a role that fit both [their] skills and personality.”
That kind of care on both sides — the business and the talent — makes all the difference.
What This Experience Taught Us
After almost a decade of building teams, here’s what I’ve learned:
- Hiring is the biggest growth bottleneck for small businesses. You can’t scale without people — and getting it wrong costs more than money.
- Great hiring is about systems and support. When someone else takes on the sourcing and vetting, you can focus on growth, not recruiting.
- Culture fit matters as much as skill. You can train technical ability, but you can’t train alignment, attitude, or ownership.
For us, TLNT has become a key partner in how we grow.
They specialize in helping companies like ours find skilled, experienced professionals across marketing, finance, operations, and technology — all while keeping things cost-efficient without sacrificing quality.
But what stood out most was their human approach. They care about the match — not just the metric.
Why This Matters
If you’re scaling and struggling to hire, you’re not alone.
The truth is, hiring today looks different than it did even 5 years ago. The world is more connected, remote work is the norm, and the best talent isn’t limited by borders anymore.
We just had to look in new places.
Partnering with TLNT helped us do that — and it’s given us back time, energy, and focus to grow the business instead of constantly rebuilding the team.
So if you’re hiring right now, take this from me:
Don’t settle. Don’t rush. Don’t burn yourself out trying to do it all alone.
There are better ways to find the right people — and when you do, everything in your business starts working better.
Because great businesses aren’t built on ads or funnels alone.
They’re built on great people.Wanna test out TLNT for yourself or just learn more? Check them out here!
