Growing An HR Consultancy for Small Businesses & Startups – with Val Esway

In a recent episode of the HR business marketing podcast, A Better HR Business, Ben and his guest, Val Esway, founder of Work with Val, talk about the challenges of hiring, compliance, and employee management for small and growing businesses across the US and Canada.

Val Esway partners with founders and leadership teams to build the recruiting and HR foundations necessary for sustainable growth. With a background spanning early-stage startups, e-commerce brands, and agencies, she has served as a People & Talent Manager, Director of Operations, and Chief of Staff. This unique trajectory allows her to bridge the gap between human-centric HR and the gritty operational realities founders face daily.

Val has completed over 150 projects focused on hiring strategy, HR infrastructure, and people operations. She specializes in helping scaling businesses move away from “firefighting” toward practical, hands-on systems that support first hires and beyond. Val brings a grounded, collaborative approach to every engagement, ensuring leaders can make confident people decisions as their teams evolve.

Val loves sharing her expertise via talks and training sessions. Popular topics include compliance basics, choosing the right HR tools, and navigating the complexities of pay structures (e.g., W-2 vs. 1099). She’s happy to tailor discussions to what founders and business owners need most.

You’ll hear practical strategies for client acquisition, running a workplace consulting business, and packaging consulting offers. Whether you identify as HR, workplace, L&D, OD, recruitment, or people & culture, you’ll discover real stories and actionable advice to attract clients, win contracts, and grow sustainably.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How to get more clients as a consultant through referrals and personalized service
• Insights into running a workplace consulting business for smaller and younger companies, including compliance, recruitment, and team development
• Val Esway’s journey, including lessons from cleaning up compliance issues, helping founders make their first hires, and developing high-touch HR solutions

• Work with Val website: www.valesway.com
• Val’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/valesway

Scroll down for the video version and the transcript.

Ok, onto the show!

Interview – Growing An HR Consultancy for Small Businesses & Startups – with Val Esway

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About The ‘A Better HR Business’ Podcast

In my HR marketing podcast, I talk with different HR consultants and HR tech companies from around the world to learn about what they do and how they keep their businesses healthy and moving in the right direction.

If you have questions you want to ask me about growing an HR consultancy or marketing for HR tech companies, just let me know or visit the HR marketing services page.

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Enjoy the show!

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Episode Transcript

Episode 304: Growing An HR Consultancy for Small Businesses & Startups – with Val Esway

Ben [00:00:00]:
Hello, welcome back to the show. Great to have you along. And I’m really looking forward to today’s conversation with Val Esway. Val is the founder of a very cool company called Work with Val. Val is the founder and principal HR consultant, and we’re gonna learn today about how she helps businesses. But firstly, Val, thank you very much for joining me today.

Val Esway [00:00:19]:
I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Ben [00:00:21]:
Yeah. And whereabouts are you calling from today?

Val Esway [00:00:25]:
I am in the Sacramento area, California.

Ben [00:00:28]:
But I understand you serve clients nationally, so it’s not just in Sacramento’s sort of regional area, it’s beyond, right?

Val Esway [00:00:34]:
Correct. Mostly the United States, but I have worked with a couple of clients in Canada as well.

Ben [00:00:40]:
Tell us about Work with Val, what kind of businesses you work with and help, and what are the HR challenges that you solve for them?

Val Esway [00:00:47]:
So I like to think of myself as a one-woman HR and recruiting shop. I work with mostly smaller and younger companies. So that could be anything from a smallish brick and mortar type business that has the CEO or the president that is wearing all the hats and doing all the things and doesn’t have HR. So what all of these companies tend to have in common is that they don’t yet have an in-house HR person and they may not really need one to work for them full-time just yet. And so I come in to kind of bridge the gap, help them get good foundational systems and practices in place. Sometimes that might include just helping them hire their first employees or, like I said, employee handbooks. I do audits because a lot of times they’re just running, they’re just handling all the things, just doing what is right in front of their face and that can bring in some thorniness.

They don’t know that they’re doing everything wrong, but they don’t necessarily know that they’re doing things right. So, you know, I kind of come in, assess what they’re doing and help them minimize risk. So, kind of encompasses the full employee lifecycle.

Ben [00:02:11]:
And it’s the same in the HR world that there are often different types of founders. There’s ones who’ve panicking and firefighting. They’ve got an employee who’s driving them crazy and they wanna fire them, but maybe they’re gonna break the law in doing so. And on the other side, you’ve got the employers who maybe they go to a seminar or something and they think there are better ways of running a business and we can be a better business. I guess you’ve seen both sides, right?

Val Esway [00:02:32]:
I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Ben [00:02:34]:
On the ugly side, I’m guessing it’s more the performance issues and the firing or performance management. Is that correct?

Val Esway [00:02:42]:
Yeah, I would say the terminations. I’ve just seen a lot of situations that could have been handled a lot better. And sometimes by the time I’ve been consulted, I’m really in cleanup mode. But fortunately, I have worked with several clients who knew that they were about to have to handle a termination and brought me in to help them do it in a way that is not only compliant, but, you know, maybe a little bit more thoughtful. There’s no way around that laying someone off or firing someone, it never feels good for anyone, but there are ways that you can be a little more thoughtful in the process and make it hurt a little bit less.

Ben [00:03:25]:
I always think that there are sort of three strands to a termination. One is the law, do it right, don’t get in trouble. And then the second strand is that respect for people, do it the right way and respectfully and all that sort of stuff. They could be customer or client one day or refer you business, who knows, you know, so they’re a member of the community. And then thirdly, the thing that gets forgotten about by some employers is the fact that the rest of the team see how you did it. So if you treated that person horribly and marched them out the door and badmouthed them and all that sort of stuff, the rest of the team are— they’re gonna see that, they’re gonna feel that, and your employee morale, engagement, all that kind of stuff is gonna be affected.

Val Esway [00:03:58]:
Yeah, definitely. I’m thinking of a place that I worked earlier in my career where every time they fired someone, there would be an announcement that went out by one of the executives that just said, as of today, so-and-so is no longer with the company. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, which absolutely meant do not ask any questions.

Ben [00:04:17]:
And on the more positive side, tell me more about the services or how you help employers, whether that be the recruitment or team development or the more positive side of HR.

Val Esway [00:04:25]:
Yeah, I would say that several of my repeat clients that I’ve had have initially brought me in to help them hire and typically what their situation looks like is they’re growing really fast. They, as the CEO or founder, are managing many, many different priorities. They’re kind of farming it out. So they might have a part-time 1099 contractor helping them in one area. They may have an agency on a retainer helping them in another area, but it’s a little bit disjointed. And so they’re getting ready to take that next step. Where they really wanna bring someone all in. They just don’t have the time to run that kind of a search cuz it can be very time-consuming.

Val Esway [00:05:11]:
There’s a lot of work that goes into it before you even really get started. Another thing that I find, especially with some founders who are maybe a founder for the first time and they’ve never— not necessarily been a manager before. Or they’ve not hired before, a lot of folks don’t really have interview training. And so they don’t necessarily know how to assess who is going to make the best fit. So how I solve their problem is they talk and I listen. I try to understand like, what business problem are you trying to solve with this hire? Because that’s really the first thing that we need to look at, especially if you read the textbooks about HR, HR is really here to help the business carry out its goals. So what business challenge are you trying to solve? Because sometimes they come in and they say, I wanna hire for this role, but then actually after I listen to them talk, it’s actually this role over here. So we get clear on what we’re trying to achieve.

Val Esway [00:06:16]:
We get the job description, and then I go to work and I do all of the sourcing, all of the interviewing, all of the qualifying, all of the assessing. And I really just bring them 2 to 3, whatever number that we decide on, of the most highly qualified candidates. They do the final interview and then they make the hire. And the feedback that I have gotten has been really great. I’ve saved them a lot of time. I bring them great people that helps them do more of the strategic work, so they’re not in the weeds doing all of this, there is a lot of administrative work that goes along with the recruiting process. And then maybe a little bit later, they’ve got these employees. This is what I’m experiencing with one of my current clients.

Now suddenly I have a team. What do I need to do here to make sure that A, we’re doing everything compliant, but B, that everyone feels supported and wants to stay and wants to do great work together. So I help them with that.

Ben [00:07:18]:
Yeah. So a couple of things jump out at me there. One is it must be such a relief for the business owner to just be presented with 2 or 3 really good candidates who fit everything, the target objectives. That’s a relief just to then know that they’re going to get a good outcome. The other thing that jumped out at me was the outcomes part. You mentioned the questioning and the listening around what are the business outcomes, what are the business results you want from hiring this? Because yes, it’s not just an org chart with some empty boxes that you need to fill in. It’s what does this really mean for the business? Do you need it? Seniority levels, could it be provided or done by some other role, in which case you get extra value. So that’s really great thinking that you’ve got there for the clients.

I know you also have specialist skills in helping e-commerce founders. So what do you do for them?

Val Esway [00:08:01]:
Well, honestly, everything that I just talked about has been pretty applicable to my e-commerce clients. They’re often working with a couple of different agencies to handle different aspects of the business. And maybe are pulled in a lot of different directions, but also some of the feedback that I’ve heard from some of my e-commerce CEOs. When you have an agency, you are one of many clients on their roster. So sometimes you may feel that you’re not really getting the attention that you might like to see. They’re not fully invested in you, which makes sense because they’re— running their own business, but you want them to be all in for whatever portion of time that they’re there. And I think that one of the challenges that these CEOs may find is that they don’t really have full control. That is part of what I help them with.

But when it is time to bring some of these roles in-house, like, what is gonna be the most strategic for you? What is going to free up time on your plate so that you can work on the other initiatives that are gonna help you grow your revenue or whatever. And again, as I mentioned earlier, these clients that I’ve worked with in e-commerce, this might be their first time running a business, this might be their first time being a manager. And so they don’t know what they don’t know yet. It’s great when they’re open to wanting to really listen to feedback, to understand how to really set things up right. And fortunately, I’ve been really lucky to work with a couple of those types of founders.

Ben [00:09:47]:
And I know you, from time to time, give talks or training sessions. If someone’s listening to this and they run a business, whether that be e-commerce or the brick and mortar type or the startup business, what are some of the topics that they could choose from to ask you to come and deliver or help them discuss?

Val Esway [00:10:01]:
Yeah, that’s a great question. I, really do love talking about this stuff. And I’ve always feel like I learn from my clients and just from the folks that I’m talking to is probably as much as they learn from me. So some of the things that I have found myself chatting about would be things like, what do I need to be thinking about from a compliance standpoint to make sure that I’m not breaking any laws or whatever. That’s the bare basics. But then there is what kind of tools do I need and where can I be scrappy and where do I need to actually invest some money in a proper tool and how is that tool gonna help me, especially when I’m first starting out. Do I need things like an HRIS or an ATS?

Ben [00:10:56]:
An ATS for listeners, an applicant tracking system. So recruitment system.

Val Esway [00:10:59]:
Right. And an HRIS is a human resources information system.

Ben [00:11:05]:
We do love our acronyms in this industry, don’t we?

Val Esway [00:11:07]:
Uh, yes, yes we do.

Ben [00:11:09]:
I know you had some topics around first hires. So for instance, we were talking about e-commerce. So for e-commerce founders, when they’re transitioning from either a solo or a slightly outsourced team to I’m going to start building my internal team. How do you start that process? I thought that was a really smart topic to be discussing. What made you cover that? Is that sort of a burning issue? Are you seeing that more often these days?

Val Esway [00:11:31]:
Yes. Like I said, sometimes a client will come to me and say, I’m looking to hire this role. Maybe it’s operations manager. Then after I speak to them and learn more about where are they spending their time, what are they finding like the most frustrating, what are the bottlenecks or the roadblocks or whatever? Then sometimes we find that it’s actually a different role that they need to hire for. So, you know, that’s one situation. Another situation is they have no idea what type of pay structure.

One of the common things that I see, and this is not just limited to any one particular type of business, but it is the W-2 versus 1099. It’s very common that companies will hire someone full-time on 1099 and treat them like an employee, which is completely not legal. And companies do it all the time, but I just like them to be aware of what the risks are and maybe to just explore how can we make this sustainable for everyone. And how we do that is just by exploring, again, what are you trying to achieve with your business? Of course, we do have to think about the budget. We just kind of do a full 360 audit of what are we trying to get to at the end of the day. And so sometimes I’m able to help them gather some insights in that realm.

Ben [00:13:08]:
But a big one for me is what do you see businesses doing before they call you? So they’ve got either hiring or employment compliance or other things. How do they handle it incorrectly and how do you solve that issue for them?

Val Esway [00:13:20]:
So, it’s very common that a smaller or a newer company will just have potentially someone who’s in the administrative function handling HR and recruiting and payroll. I’ve actually done all of those things myself earlier in my career when I wasn’t really in an HR function. So people do that all the time and sometimes for a certain amount of time that might be able to work for you, but a lot of times there can be issues there. I mean, myself, like I’m not a payroll expert, but I have experience with a lot of different payroll tools and I have run payroll a bunch. I still don’t think of myself as an expert. There are just things you have to watch for. Fortunately, we have great tools, Gusto has like the autopilot function. So a lot of times they have someone in-house, whether that is like someone in the administrative role, or sometimes it’s just the CEO or the founder doing it cuz they don’t even have an assistant.

And again, they might miss small things because they don’t really know what to look for. So some ways that I could help them is again, coming in and doing an audit, what tools are you using? What processes are you using? What risk do you think you have? And then I make an assessment to figure out how things are going and then figure out if there are challenges, what can we do to mitigate them? And it’s not necessarily wrong that people start out doing things this way because you have to start somewhere. A lot of times people don’t want to invest in HR because they view it as a cost center, rather than a revenue driver. I understand that. And if your business is growing, you will get to a point where you are going to have to hand that off to someone. Sometimes it’s not an admin function who’s handling that stuff. It’s the CFO. And then at least, probably with the CFO, the payroll’s probably going to be okay. Those are typically the scenarios that I see.

Ben [00:15:39]:
If you’re listening to this and you’re an employer, you’ve got a team, something like that, with an inexperienced person, an office manager or someone like that doing it, they mean the best. Absolutely. They’re probably doing a great job, but my preference is get someone in who knows a system and can audit that stuff. As you said, you can come in and audit it, check it, do it properly, and then proceed from there. If I flip to— I’m a nature nerd, I’m also a business growth nerd. What do you do to get the word out about Work with Val, the business?

Val Esway [00:16:03]:
Honestly, so much of my business has come from referrals. I take that as just the highest praise ever. It’s just such an honor when someone has such a great experience working with you that they like to tell others about it.

Ben [00:16:18]:
I love the fact that clients love what you’ve done. They come back to you. You’re getting out there and spreading the word, for instance, on the podcasts and the sessions that you’re running for employers and business groups on the different topics. If people want to learn more about you and the business itself, what should they do next?

Val Esway [00:16:33]:
They should just reach out. They could start by going to my website, workwithval.io. Drop me a line, find me on LinkedIn. Work with Val, it’s really, it’s me. You’re working with me. And I think that is part of what people really like about working with me. I am the one showing up, doing the work, and it’s a very, very high-touch and personalized experience. Every engagement that I do is very, very precisely tailored to what the client needs.

And I’ll be very transparent if you’re trying to achieve something that I don’t think I’m the best suited for, and then I’ll try and refer you to someone else. But it’s no nonsense. It’s a direct— it’s just reach out to me and we’ll have a conversation and we’ll take it from there.

Ben [00:17:23]:
Yeah, if you’re listening to this on the go, it’s workwithval.io and we’ll have the link to Val’s LinkedIn profile in the show notes. So check that out. I love what you’ve done. I love how you’re helping clients and solving problems for them and helping them grow their own businesses in the same time. Thanks for sharing your story today. Really appreciate it.

Val Esway [00:17:41]:
My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

Topics covered: how to attract HR consulting clients, find consulting clients, running a workplace consulting business, packaging consulting offers, HR consultants.

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